Secrets And Arrows (Hiatus)
by xkiitsune
Summary: Tess Adler is wandering alone in the forest, until she accidentally scares couple kids and soon enough is being pointed to the head with a crossbow. What a great way for her to start in this new world they are living in. Rick and his group don't kindly take this stranger in first. But after an attack, Rick gives her a chance. What secrets she hides though? Daryl/OC. Rated T for now
1. Chapter 1

A lonely survivor walked through the thick forest. Adjusting her backpack and walking down the small path. She was wearing black boots, what might not been the best choice for forest walking - well, you couldn't never see a zombie apocalypse coming. The weather was chilly and she only had a dark red shirt and black jacket to warm her up, paired with jeans. It had been quiet for a while, what was making her feel rather uneasy. The flesh eating monsters hadn't showed up yet, which was a relief; only having couple bullets left on her weapon. Looking around, she tried staying alarmed. Her head staring in many directions, her blonde hair swinging from side to side. She noticed a dead deer on her way, crouching next to it and noticing an arrow on its stomach.

"Hm, that's strange. I wonder if this means there's people 'round here." She mumbled to herself.

She stood up, continuing her way.

Hearing footsteps, she looked around and saw nothing. Taking her pistol from the holder, holding it tightly in her shaking hand; preparing to meet up with couple

zombies. She heard voices near her. Carefully stepping towards the sounds, she peeked from a bush. There were two children. Surprised, she decided to try talking to

them. At the same moment as she walked at them, they looked at her with widened eyes.

"Kids? Are you alone?"

They didn't let out a noise, just stood there motionless. She looked confused as she continued to stare at one young boy and a girl. In a flash, both of the kids made a

run for it.

"N-no! Wait!" She ran after them.

"Dad! Mom!" The young boy shouted.

She stopped running as she lost them both. The silence fell again to the forest. It was deadly quiet, no footsteps, sounds, _nothing_. When suddenly she was started by

a noise behind her, turning around she saw a crossbow pointed at her face.

"One wrong move and y'all have an arrow in your head!" The stranger shouted.

She stood frozen on her place as her gun dropped to the ground. He looked to the ground, grabbing the gun to himself, but still his eyes on her the whole time.

"Ya are comin' with me. Walk."

She couldn't do anything, but do as he told her so she started walking forward; he had his crossbow pointed at her back as he walked behind her.

"What's yer name?"

"Uhh...Tess...Tess Adler.."

"Ya alone or with a group?"

"How many questions you're gonna ask?"

"I will ask questions until I know will I shoot ya or not."

Tess swallowed, sighing. "Fine...I'm alone - I got separated from my group couple days ago...the biters came and - took them down. Only I survived."

He nodded shortly.

They came to a small camp, where were few people. A man in a sheriff costume walked to her, eyeing her sharply.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Name's Tess...I'm alone as my group members died." She muttered.

"Are you hurt in anyway? - Maybe bit or scratched?" He continued.

"N-no." Tess shook her head.

The Sheriff tapped his gun what was in his holster. Staring at the ground, he thought of what to do with this stranger. "Tie her to a tree."

"What?!" She snapped.

The man walked close to her, narrowing his eyes and glaring at her. "You better be quiet and listen to me. I have a group of people I need to take care of. I'll decide

later what to do with you." He walked away, looking at the man with a crossbow. "Daryl."

Daryl nodded, giving a rough push to her back; telling her to move forward. Tess let out a shaky breathe, her feet starting to move forward.

He tied her to a tree next to a RV. Roping her hands together tightly, she let out a small huff.

"You could be at least a bit gentle." She noted, her hands hurting.

Daryl ignored her remark, standing up and leaving. Tess leaned on the tree behind her, looking forward. An old man passed by her, staring. She noticed hint of

confusion on his look. After feeling awkward staring, she nailed her look at the ground.

"Rick." Dale spoke up.

"What?" Rick replied while putting up a camp fire.

"Why is there a girl tied on the tree?"

"Found her sneaking near our camp, scaring Carl and Sophia. She could be dangerous." Rick sternly said, placing wood.

"Does she look like a threat? By the looks, she seems to be starving." Dale grunted, walking a circle. "...what are you gonna do with her?" He finally asked.

Rick stayed silent, thinking about something. "I don't know yet, I will discuss this with everyone else."

"Wouldn't extra help be good?"

"And extra mouth to feed? We are low on supplies, Dale."

"But the chance of finding more food with more survivors."

Rick glanced at Tess, then back to Dale. "We'll see." Rick finished, lighting up the camp fire.

Soon everyone had gathered around the fire, making food from the deer Daryl had got on his hunting trip.

"Everyone, I would like to have your attention." Rick spoke up. As the talking silenced and he had everyone's attention, Rick continued. "As you know we came across

this stranger - any ideas what to do with her?"

"I'd say we shoot her." Daryl said indifferent.

"Daryl - we don't kill the living." Rick glared at him.

"Well, ya wanted an option." Daryl sneered.

"Shane?" Rick looked at Shane.

Shane scratched his neck, sighing. "I don't know, we could use some more survivors. But is a small girl like that gonna help much?"

"You don't know if she knows how to shoot - if she can't, we could always teach her. Soon enough, she would be fine defending herself. Come on, think if you would be

in this situation." Dale fumed.

"Dale's right, we would be monsters if we would just kill her or leave her to the walkers." Andrea said.

"I checked, she only had couple bullets on her gun. That wouldn't take her too far." Daryl remarked.

Everyone fell silent, they were unsure what would be the final decision. Amy stood up, noting Andrea about going to the toilet.

They finally continued arguing as Tess followed their discussing. Amy had a quick look on her as she went inside the RV. Tess tried moving her hands, her wrists aching

from the tight rope. A small grunting gained her attention as she saw something moving near the RV; recognizing it as a walker. Tess winced, the RV's door opening at

the same time.

"Hey!" She tried yelling to Amy.

"Are we out of toilet paper?" Amy shouted to others.

Tess' voice was too dry; she had been kept all day under the burning sun. Much to Tess' luck, she couldn't hear her and it was too late as the walker grabbed Amy's

arm and took a bite of it. Amy's scream startled the group, as Lori and Carol held their children and everyone got up fast. Men grabbed their guns and started shooting

the walkers coming to the camp.

Tess felt helpless as she couldn't do anything, trying too hard getting her arms free.

"Get in to the RV!" Shane shouted.

A walker noticed her struggling, slowly limping towards her. Tess' eyes widened, her adrenaline rushing through her body as the walker attacked her. She kicked it to

the stomach, the clumsy walker falling down and now dragging its body and clenching its teeth. She tried kicking it to the head, cursing as she did so.

Blood flew as the walker was shot in the head, Tess sighed of relief, looking to her left as she noticed Dale being the one who saved her. Yet, it wasn't safe; more

walkers were heading to the camp. Glenn ran to her, using his knife to cut the ropes quickly.

"Time for you to show that you can be helpful. Here take this fast!" Glenn threw the knife to her as she stood up.

Glenn ran to help others, as Tess rushed to help Carol who was trying to escape a walker with her daughter. Hitting the walker to the head from behind, she looked for

more - hoping to be useful and show Rick and others to spare her life.

Most of the walkers were taken care by men's weapons. Tess watched in horror as one woman was attacked by couple walkers at once; not getting there in time to

help her. Tess kicked couple zombies down, stabbing them to the head. Endless screams filling the atmosphere.

Soon the scene was over; dead walkers everywhere. Tess was gasping for air, feeling sick seeing those poor people dead.

"Drop the knife." Rick's voice demanded.

Immediately dropping the knife, she turned around to face him.

"How did you get free?" He asked.

"I-" She started.

"I released her." Glenn cut her off.

"Why?" Rick continued questioning.

"Well, walkers would have killed her and extra help was needed, Rick." Glenn replied.

"You could have just escaped, why didn't you do it?"

Tess swallowed, her voice being still dry and shaky. "I-I couldn't leave you guys in trouble. I mean you have kids here. I'm not a heartless bastard, you know?"

"Rick, if this matters -" Carol spoke up, her voice quiet - "..she saved me and Sophia." Carol held tightly her daughter.

Rick tilted his head, sighing. "Alright, I'll let you stay in my group." He threw her pistol back to her. "It's fully loaded, careful with it." Tess caught it, putting it to her holster.

A sobbing Andrea caught everyone's attention, she was next to a suffering Amy; whose neck was bloody.

"I-I don't know what to do.." Andrea cried as she held a hand on Amy's cheek.

Amy was breathing heavily as her eyes closed and she stopped breathing. The scene was heartbreaking as Andrea tried shaking her awake.

"Amy! Amy!" Andrea's voice broke.

Tess bit her lip as she stared at them; trying not to cry herself.

_"So, this is what this world has gone to.."_ She silently said to herself.

* * *

**First chapter of my first Walking Dead story! I hoped you liked it and I apologize for it being short. The future chapters will be much longer. Will be trying to update soon - reviews and critic appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, they were burning the walkers' bodies and burying the dead people. It was a horrific thing to see. Tess headed to the camp - she had been sleeping

on an extra tent they had; farther in the forest away from others. Not like she wouldn't have minded company, it's just she was still an outsider for the group. Tess

noticed Rick sitting alone, talking to a walkie talkie.

"...last night walkers came out of the woods. We lost people. Watch yourself, Morgan. Take care of your boy. I'll try you again tomorrow at dawn." Rick shut down the

walkie talkie, not doing anything but staring at the ground. She decided it would be best to leave him alone, Rick had took it hard - losing many people and so, making

the group weaker.

The smell of burning flesh wasn't pleasant. Andrea was still next to the RV. Staring blankly at dead Amy, without moving an inch from her spot. Lori walked to Andrea,

telling how sorry she was. Tess sat with Carol, giving a light smile.

"Everything alright?" Tess asked.

Carol nodded, returning a weak smile. "Yeah...thanks." She whispered.

Daryl swung dead walkers' head with a pickaxe as Glenn and T-Dog dragged and threw more bodies in a fire.

"She still won't move?" Rick returned, asking the question from others.

"She won't even talk to us - she's been there all night." Lori replied. "What do we do?"

"We can't leave Amy like that, we need to deal with it - same as the others." Shane said.

"I'll tell her how it is." Rick said as he headed towards Andrea.

"Andrea -"

Andrea cuts off Rick by pulling out a gun, pointing at him with it.

"I know how the safety works." Andrea flatly said.

"All right. Okay. I'm sorry." Rick backed away slowly. Andrea lowered the gun, continuing to stare at her dead sister.

* * *

"Ya'll can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb." Daryl grunted.

"What do you suggest?" Rick asked from him.

Daryl walked closer to him. "Take a shot." He spat. "Clean, in the brain from here - hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

Daryl annoyed Tess. He didn't seem to care that how much it meant to lose a person and how hard it was to let go. She got up, walking to Daryl.

"For god's sake, redneck. Let her be." Tess said irritated.

Daryl turned at her, smirking and thinking she was sort of joke. "Oh, look who it is. The city girl's tryin' to tell me what to do - I'll tell ya what, don't be on my fuckin'

way." He cursed, walking away.

Tess puffed, crossing her arms.

Daryl went to help Morales as they dragged a dead person.

"What are you guys doing?" Glenn asked. "This is for geeks. Our people go over there." Glenn exclaimed, pointing right.

"What's the difference, they're all infected." Daryl noted.

"Our people go in that row over there - we don't burn them!" Glenn's voice broke. "We bury them, understand? Our people go in that row over there."

Daryl looked at Morales as they both started dragging the body other way.

"Ya reap what ya sow!" Daryl huffed.

"You know what? Shut up, man." Morales grunted.

Daryl let go of the body like he didn't care anymore. "Y'all left my brother for dead! Ya had this comin'!" Daryl angrily shouted as he left.

_"He lost his brother?"_ Tess thought. _"No wonder he's so grumpy."_

She went to help out with the bodies and walkers, as Jim came to help her with one body. Tess noticed a blood mark on his shirt. "Are you bleeding?" She asked.

"I just got some on me from the bodies." He answered. Obviously he was hiding something.

"That blood is fresh, were you bit?" Tess was worried.

"No." He replied shortly. "I got scratched during the attack."

"You got bit, I'm sure of that." She said sharpish.

"I'm fine." Jim continued lying.

"Then show me, goddamnit!" Tess snapped.

He started panicking. "Don't tell them, please girl." He whispered.

"A walker got him! A walker bit him!" Tess shouted, pointing at Jim; backing away.

Everyone started surrounding him.

"I'm okay, I'm okay." He muttered.

"Show it to us, show it to us." Daryl demanded.

Jim grabbed a shovel to defend himself.

"Jim, put it down!" Shane yelled.

T-Dog grabbed Jim from behind as Jim continued repeating his words. "I'm okay, I'm okay" He said.

Daryl rushed and lifted his shirt; showing a bite wound. T-Dog let go of him, others looking at Jim terrified.

Now the group had to decide what to do with Jim.

* * *

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Daryl spat.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane questioned him.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it." Daryl fumed.

"It's not right to kill a person who's still alive, redneck." Tess interrupted the conversation between the group.

"Ya stay out of this, city girl."

"Make me." Tess glared at him, crossing her arms.

Daryl walked up to her, giving her some kind of death stare. "Ya really want that, girlie? Ya sure? I wouldn't if I were ya."

"I'm not scared of some hillybilly."

"This hillybilly's gonna kick your ass some attitude soon." Daryl threatened.

"My attitude? What about yours?" She pointed out.

"Now, now - don't start a fight." Rick cut them off.

"She started it!" Daryl grunted, continuing to glare sharply at her.

Shane suggested going to the Fort Benning - what was 100 miles in the opposite direction from what Rick suggested. Rick and Shane started arguing about where

they would go as Daryl looked over his shoulder at Jim then back at Tess who was giving him a dirty look.

"Ya go lookin' for aspirin, do what ya need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of these damn problems!" Daryl rushed swinging his pickaxe at Tess first.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Rick pulled out his gun, pointing it as Daryl's head. "Like I said - we don't kill the living."

Daryl lowered his axe. "That's funny comin' from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl snapped.

"We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down, go on. " Shane commanded to Daryl.

Daryl put down the pickaxe frustrated, leaving the situation. Tess stood frozen on her place, scared of Daryl.

_"Is he some kind of psycho?"_ She thought to herself.

Dale walked to Andrea, hoping to convince her. While Daryl was about to swing his axe on Carol's dead husband, Ed - Carol stopped him.

"I'll do it, he's my husband." Carol sniffed.

Daryl slowly gave the pickaxe to her as Carol swung the axe, crying as she did so. She continued countless times, Daryl watched at her confused. Tess watched from

the side as she stared at Carol worried. She thought it would be best to leave her do what she wanted to do. Turning back to check Andrea, she noticed movement on

Amy. Tess widened her eyes, heading to Rick.

"Rick." She said rushed.

Rick gave her a confused look as she pointed at Andrea. Shane and Rick took our their guns, ready to shoot.

"I love you." Andrea said as she held her gun on Amy's head and pulled the trigger. Everyone went silent.

Andrea was dragging Amy's body to a digged grave. Dale tried desperately helping her, but Andrea refused.

After getting her body into the grave, Dale got her up; Andrea nodded to him, meaning she was fine.

* * *

Later, group was having a discussion again. They couldn't stay in the camp anymore.

"I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no..there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time, I

trust his instincts." Shane said.

Lori looked surprised by his statement.

"I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together." Shane looked at Tess and then Daryl. "And no more fighting, we are a group, remember that."

Shane hinted. Tess lowered her head, maybe feeling a bit guilt. Daryl looked indifferent.

"So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning - okay?"

In the morning, Shane was telling about 'rules' and 'keeping the chatter down'.

"Any questions?" Shane ended his speech.

"We're, uh...we're not going." Morales spoke out.

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people." Morales' wife said.

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane noted.

"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family." Morales continued.

"You sure?" Shane asked.

"We talked about it, we're sure."

"Alright, - Shane?" Rick looked at Shane.

"Yeah, all right." Shane replied.

They gave Morales a gun and half full ammo box. Daryl didn't look quite happy about it. Everyone said goodbyes to the Morales' family.

"Okay, c'mon. Let's move out." Shane said.

Tess moved inside the RV, staring from the window as she heard Jim's pain in the back of the RV. Jacqui was trying to calm him down as small bumps seemed like knifes

to him. Tess wasn't still completely sure about staying with the group, but decided she would leave if this wouldn't turn out good.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van." Dale spoke.

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asked.

"That's all it's been so far - it's more duct tape than hose." Dale paused. "And I'm out of duct tape."

"I see something up ahead - gas station, if we're lucky." Shane looked through binoculars.

Jacqui rushed out of the RV. "Y'all, Jim - it's bad. I don't think he can take anymore." Jacqui said deeply worried.

"Hey, Rick. You want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back." Shane asked Rick.

Rick nodded and walked in to the RV, taking off his hat. Walking a circle, Tess was deep in her thoughts. Carol noticed it and tried catching her attention.

"Hey." Carol said softly.

Tess stopped walking, lifting her head and giving a small smile. "Hey."

Carol crossed her arms, studying her face. "You seem to be upset about something."

Tess sighed. "I just feel like I'm only an extra carry to this group."

Carol shook her head. "No, you saved my life. You saved also my daughter's life from those nasty walkers. Don't you think that means something?" Carol gave a warm smile.

Tess chuckled. "I guess you're right. Oh, also - I never catched everyone's names so well."

"Well, I'm Carol and that's my daughter over there, Sophia." Carol pointed to a small blonde girl. "That's Rick Grimes as you know, his wife Lori and their son, Carl.

Shane, Dale. Jacqui is in RV with Jim. That's Glenn and there's...Daryl Dixon."

Tess' expression was surprised as she heard Daryl's last name. "Dixon?" She asked.

"Yeah - what? Does it sound familiar or something?" Carol raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, no. It's just - never mind. But thanks I'll try remembering the names now." Tess let out a small nervous laugh.

Carol was about to ask her something as Rick stepped out of the RV.

"Jim - he wants to be left here - it's what he says he wants." Rick said.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asked uncertain.

"He seems to be." Rick paused. "I would say yes."

"I would never go along with callously killing a man - I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants; and I think we have an answer." Dale said.

"We just leave him here?" Shane asked.

"We take off?" Tess questioned right after Shane. She wasn't exactly sure with the idea of leaving a sick man behind.

"Man, I'm not sure I could live with that." Shane muttered.

"It's not your call, either one of you." Lori started.

* * *

Shane and Rick carried Jim and leaned him to a tree.

"Hey, Jim - I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this." Shane asked with a bit of shakiness in his voice.

"No, it's good. The breeze feels nice." Jim replied with a dry voice.

"Okay. All right." Shane quietly said.

Jacqui walked and crouched next to Jim. "Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight." She gave him a kiss on the cheek, sniffing and about to cry.

"Jim, do you want this?" Rick stepped next to him, handing over a gun.

"No." Jim whispered. "You'll need it - I'm okay."

Now it was Dale's turn to say goodbye to Jim. "Thanks for..uh - fighting for us." Dale smiled.

"Okay." Jim shortly answered.

Tess felt herself almost crying as she wiped away a small tear; slowly walking away to go and comfort Jacqui abit. Daryl turned to Jim, giving him a quick nod before leaving.

As everyone left with their vehicles, most of them glanced one more time at Jim.

* * *

The group approaches the CDC, where hundreds of bodies lay dead on the ground.

"All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on." Rick commands. "Stay quiet, let's go."

The smell was terrible as flies surrounded the dead rotting bodies. Carefully walking towards the building, Rick and Shane tried opening the closed doors, which turned

out to be useless; they couldn't be opened.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog said in disappointment.

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick sharply said.

"Walkers!" Daryl shouted.

Daryl aimed at a walker with his crossbow, hitting it to its head with an arrow. "You led us into a graveyard!" Daryl yelled frustrated.

"He made a call!" Dale said.

"It was a wrong call!" Daryl huffed.

"Just shut up, you hear? Shut up. Shut up!" Shane pointed at Daryl. "Rick, this is a dead end."

"We can't stay here, the sun's setting." Tess noted.

"Where are we gonna go?" Carol worried.

"Do you hear me? No blame." Shane said.

"She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark." Lori said with rushed words.

"Fort Benning, Rick. Still an option." Shane remarked.

"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles." Andrea replied.

"125. I checked the map." Glenn said.

"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now!" Tess yelled resentful.

"We will think of something." Rick tried calming everyone down.

Everyone started rushing back to the vehicles as Rick stayed on his spot. Tess stopped, wondering what Rick was doing.

"Rick? You coming?" She asked but he didn't give a response. He was staring at a camera - what suddenly moved.

"The camera - it moved!" Rick exclaimed.

"You imagined it." Dale said.

"No! It moved, I saw it too." Tess answered.

"You both imagined it, it's dead, guys." Shane said. "It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down, now both come on!" Shane took a hold of

Rick's hand as with a hesitation Rick moved.

Tess didn't move even though Lori came to grab her arm.

"No! Just go away." Tess fumed.

"We have to go, there's nobody here!" Lori yelled.

"No! Rick's right! I swear there's somebody there!" Tess continued, trying to squirm off Lori's grip.

"Look around this place, it's dead, okay?" Shane said.

Rick tried walking back but Shane tried stopping him. "It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick!" Shane grunted.

Rick rushed to the door, giving it a hard slam.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me - please, we're desperate!" Rick shouted.

Tess walked to his side, trying to help him. "Please help us, we have children, no food and hardly any gas!" She cried.

Lori walked to Rick. "There's nobody here, Rick." She tried getting him away from the building.

Dale went and held a hand on Tess' shoulder, trying to convince her too. "There isn't anybody there, girl." He said.

"We have nowhere else to go!" Rick continued shouting.

Shane and others focused on shooting walkers heading their direction.

"If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!" Rick screamed angry.

Tess lost her hope as there was no answer, but Rick still kept going.

"Come on, buddy - let's go." Shane said, taking a grip of Rick and trying to calm him down.

"You're killing us! You're killing us!" Rick continued yelling.

As Rick finally moved and turned away, a sudden flash of light appeared, one door opening. Everyone stood still as they were taken back.

* * *

**End of chapter 2! Hoped you enjoyed reading it. In this one I followed abit what happened on one episode. But I promise it won't go 100 % as the series go. So don't worry about it, this is just to get my story started ^^**


	3. Chapter 3

"Daryl, you cover the back." Shane said as everyone carefully made their way inside the building.

The place was big, but quiet as there was no life inside of it. Men raised their guns as a mysterious man walked up to them with a gun on his hand.

"Anybody infected?!" He yelled.

"One of our group was." Rick paused. "He didn't make it."

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man continued.

Rick breathed shakily. "A chance." He answered shortly.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man remarked.

Rick shook his head a bit. "I know."

A sudden silence laid on everyone as the man stared at each group member. He walked slowly towards the group.

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." He finally said.

Rick nodded. "We can do that."

The man lowered his gun. "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now." He pointed at the door. "Once this door closes, it stays closed."

Tess rushed with others to grab her backpack outside. Still wondering what did he mean by _once the door closes, it __**stays **__closed._

The door was closed as the man spoke. "Vi, seal the main entrance - kill the power up here."

The door rattled as it closed.

"Rick Grimes." Rick introduced himself.

The man seemed to be hesitating for a second, until he answered. "Dr. Edwin Jenner."

Silence in the elevator was awkward, when Daryl spoke out. "Doctors always go around packing heat like that?"

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." Jenner answered. "But you look harmless enough - except you." He looked at Carl. "I'll have to keep my eye

on you." He chuckled.

"Are we underground?" Carol asked as they walked down the hallway.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner turned to look at her.

"A little." Carol replied.

"Try not to think about it." Jenner shortly said as he continued walking.

They arrived to a huge room.

"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." Jenner said.

Everything hummed and beeped as lights turned on.

"Welcome to zone five." Jenner walked to the centre of the room.

"Where is everybody?" Rick questioned. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it." Jenner said. "It's just me here."

Rick grew quiet as Lori started. "What about the person you were speaking with?"

"Yeah. Who is this 'Vi'?" Tess asked.

Jenner didn't directly answer the question as he exclaimed. "Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them...welcome."

_Hello, guests. Welcome._

"That's kind of cool." Tess mumbled.

"I'm all that's left." Jenner shortly said.

Rick frowned, not saying anything.

"I'm sorry." Jenner said, walking away.

Everyone were in a small room as it was Tess' turn to go and take the blood test. She looked petrified as she sat on the chair. Jenner seemed to notice it.

"Everything okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's just - I'm not very fond of needles." Tess muttered, giving a small smile.

"Don't worry, it won't take more than couple seconds and try focusing on something else. It's just gonna sting a bit." Jenner said.

"Hey, stay calm city girl. Maybe if yer nice, he'll give ya a lollipop after it." Daryl smirked.

A couple laughs from others filled the room as Tess chuckled too.

Andrea looked pale after her blood test, Jacqui tried helping her. Jenner noticed it too and asked was she okay.

"She hasn't eaten in days - none of us have." Jacqui answered.

Soon enough, they were in the big room; having wine and laughing. It was a nice change after being out there, afraid of walkers.

"A'right, China man and city girl." Daryl grinned.

"What?" Glenn asked.

"Keep drinkin', I want to see how red your faces can get." Daryl laughed, challenging them both.

"Oh, it's on, redneck." Tess pointed at Daryl.

Rick clinked the glass as he stood up. "It seems to me, we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog said.

Everyone raised their glass. "Hear hear!"

"Here's to ya, doc. Booyah!" Daryl raised his wine bottle happily.

Only Shane didn't look so happy.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?" Shane spoke, raising his eyebrow. "All the...the others doctors - that were supposed to be figuring

out what happened, where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick said as he sat.

The laughing had died along as Shane started speaking, everything seeming so serious suddenly.

"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right?" Shane continued and looked at Rick. "This was your move...supposed to find all the answers. Instead we -"

Shane chuckled. "We found him." He pointed at Jenner who wasn't looking very amused. "Found one man. Why?"

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest

bolted." Jenner replied.

"Every last one?" Shane asked.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door." Jenner paused. "They...opted out - there was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asked him.

"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good."

"Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man." Glenn complained.

* * *

"Most of the facility is powered down, including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's

a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy - just don't plug-in the video games, okay?" Jenner pointed at Carl and Sophia, who nodded. "Or anything that

draws power. The same applies, if you go shower, go easy on the hot water." Jenner finished and left.

"Hot water?" Glenn turned and grinned.

"That's what the man said." T-Dog smiled and laughed.

Tess found herself a room, placing her stuff on the bed and grabbing a clean towel from the closet.

She met Andrea on her way, greeting her. Andrea didn't look so good, she was coughing and looking bad.

"Everything alright?" Tess asked worried.

Andrea nodded, when she rushed to her room and into the bathroom.

"Andrea?" Tess ran to Andrea's room, she was vomiting. Tess quickly crouched beside her, gently tapping her back. Andrea fell backwards, leaning to the wall behind

her, crying.

"Oh, everything's gone." Andrea sobbed.

"What do you mean?" Tess asked her.

"You know, it's over. There's nothing left. Don't you see that?"

Tess swallowed, not sure what to answer. "I-I...don't you -" Tess paused, sighing. "Only thing what I see is a new fresh chance to us."

Andrea laughed, still crying. "Oh my god, Tess. That's what Dale told me too, you're all wrong. Didn't you see the look on Jenner's face? Hear what I'm saying; there's

_nothing _left and never will be."

* * *

She walked down the hallway, deep in her thoughts. Andrea's words had badly sank into her mind. Turning from the corner, Tess didn't notice until she bumped into

something and fell down on the floor.

"Watch where yer goin'!"

She looked up; it was Daryl. "Sorry, I was too lost in my thoughts." Tess muttered.

Daryl shook his head as he offered a hand. She took it, getting up.

"Thanks." Tess said shortly, continuing her way and she only managed to touch the door knob when she started sobbing softly.

"Damn it, no time for crying." She tried calming herself down, wiping her tears off.

"Hey, ya 'kay?" Daryl asked from behind her.

She hadn't even realized he was still there. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

"Well, doesn't sound like it."

There was a moment of silence.

"Do you believe there's still hope?" Tess asked.

Daryl didn't reply right away, he was probably thinking. "I still believe there is. Maybe some day all this will be over." His voice softened.

She sighed. "Yeah...". Tess paused. "Maybe we will survive with eating squirrels what you hunt." She chuckled, trying to light up the mood.

Daryl let out a short laugh. "Heh, the squirrels I caught are always the most delicious ones."

"Never tasted them yet, actually." Tess said.

"Ya will soon enough."

"Oh boy, I won't be looking forward to that."

"So, ya gonna stand there all night or are ya waitin' for me to join ya in the shower?" He smirked.

Tess nudged at his stomach with her elbow as he laughed. "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that, redneck." She smiled, opening the door. She locked it and headed for

the shower. Hot shower felt good, cleaning all the dirt off from her skin. She dried herself after it, putting a towel around her. Tess looked to the mirror, it had been

awhile since she had seen herself. She had bruises on her arms. Lack of sleep while running away from walkers had caused dark circles under her eyes.

"Hm, well - at least I look a bit better after the shower. I must have looked even more shit before it." Tess mumbled.

She sighed, grabbing her stuff and walking out of the door. When Tess was in her room, she dressed and headed to the rec room where she saw Carol, Sophia, Lori

and Carl.

"Any good books?" Tess smiled.

Carol nodded. "Enough to keep us busy for years." Carol placed a book on the table as she got up. "All right. Come on, kids, it's bedtime."

"I'm gonna browse a bit. Tess, can you take Carl sleep and make sure he says his prayers?" Lori asked.

"Sure." Tess replied.

"Come on." Carol said and turned to Tess. "This is the first night we might actually get some real sleep. It's a miracle, isn't it?"

"Hmm." Tess nodded.

After getting Carl to sleep, Tess headed to the rec room to find a wine bottle. Pouring herself a glass, she searched through the bookshelf. A door slam startled her as

she turned around.

"Ya haven't forgotten the challenge, eh? Chinese already passed out to his room." Daryl smirked.

"Of course I haven't."

Daryl wobbled and sat on the couch. "Well come on and show me what ya got, girl."

Tess chuckled, grabbing a book and sitting down. Placing the book on the couch, she grabbed her glass of wine.

"Don't be all fancy, take the damn bottle."

Tess put the glass away and grabbed the bottle, taking a big sip.

"Nice." Daryl took a sip from his own whiskey bottle.

"I'm gonna regret this in the morning." Tess muttered.

* * *

Later, she found herself drunken and laughing like crazy.

"Oh yeah? Ya should taste the real deal." Daryl shook the whiskey bottle on his hand.

Tess raised an eyebrow, taking the bottle from his hand and drinking it; coughing right after it.

"Too much?" Daryl laughed.

"No, it's just I'm not used to it."

Daryl liked having company. He hadn't been much social with the other members of the group after his brother disappeared.

Tess yawned, starting to feel a tired. "Damn, I'm feeling sleepy." She mumbled.

"Can ya make it to yer room?" Daryl asked.

She didn't answer, but leaned to him.

"Tess?" He continued asking.

She was quiet; she had just passed out.

"Oh jesus, girl." Daryl tried shaking her awake, but it was impossible. He was feeling rather tired himself and knew he wouldn't make it to his room without falling many

times - Daryl had taken too much.

* * *

Tess slowly opened her eyes, a pounding feeling inside her head.

"Ow, my head." She whined.

Finally realizing she was still in the rec room - Daryl sleeping right next to her. It made her cheeks grow red as she carefully stood up, trying not to wake him up and

making her way out of the room.

Tess walked to the kitchen, where everyone were already eating breakfast.

"Morning." She said, holding her head and sitting at the table.

After a while, Rick arrived to the room too, greeting.

"Are you hungover?" Carl asked from him. "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom is right." Rick smiled.

"Mom has that annoying habit." Lori said.

"Eggs. Powdered, but...but I do 'em good." T-Dog said proud.

Glenn was moaning and holding his head.

"I feel you, Glenn." Tess complained.

Dale just chuckled.

"I bet you can't tell. Protein helps the hangover." T-Dog hinted, giving eggs to Glenn and Tess.

"Where'd all this come from?" Rick held a pill can.

"Jenner." Lori answered.

"Could you help me, please?" Rick asked.

"He thought we could use it." Lori said. "Some of us, at least." Looking at Glenn and Tess.

"Don't ever ever ever let me drink again." Glenn whined.

Shane came too, some wondered about a long scratch on his neck, but he told he probably did it in his sleep.

Dr. Jenner also arrived, greeting everyone. Daryl had awoke too, glancing at Tess as he took food and sat at the table.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions, first thing..." Dale started.

"But you will anyway." Jenner said.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea said.

* * *

"Give me playback of TS-19." Jenner said.

_Playback of TS-19._

"Few people ever got a chance to see this - very few." Jenner said. "Take us in for E.I.V"

_Enhanced internal view._

Everyone stared interest and confused at the screen.

"What are those lights?" Shane asked.

"It's a person's life; experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light; is you. The thing that makes you unique and

human." Jenner explained.

"Ya don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked.

"Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth - to

the moment of death." Jenner continued.

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick wondered.

"Yes." Jenner replied shortly. "Or rather the playback of the vigil."

"This person died? Who?" Andrea asked.

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event."

_Scanning to first event._

"What is that?" Glenn questioned.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs." Jenner paused. "Then death." "Everything

you ever were or ever will be...gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked her mother.

"Yes." Carol answered.

Tess held a hand on her mouth, trying to control her emotions. This was too much to her, as well as to Andrea too.

Jenner looked over to Andrea with an asking look.

"She lost somebody two days ago." Lori said. "Her sister."

"I lost somebody too, I know how devastating it is." Jenner tried comforting Andrea. "Scan to the second event."

_Scanning to second event._

Something red started glowing on the dark brain area.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked.

"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving." Jenner replied.

"But they're not alive?" Rick walked to Jenner.

Jenner pointed to the screen. "You tell me."

Rick shook his head. "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part...that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell, driven by mindless instinct.

A cut through the brain was shown on the screen.

"God, what was that?" Carol stared at the screen.

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea said.

"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations."

_Powering down main screen and workstations._

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea snapped. "Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere."

"There are others, right. Other facilities?" Tess asked.

"There may be some." Jenner turned to her. "People like me."

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick asked sternly.

"Everything went down. Communications, directives..all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here." Andrea said. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"

Jenner grew silent. Andrea sighed.

"Damn." Tess mumbled.

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again." Daryl held hands on his face.

"I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but..." Dale paused, pointing to a digital clock. "That clock...it's counting down. What

happens at zero?"

"The basement generators...they run out of fuel." Jenner replied.

"And then?" Rick asked.

Jenner walked away, without saying a word.

"Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick shouted to the computer.

_When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur._

Rick leaded T-Dog, Glenn and Shane as they rushed to the basement.

"Decontamination...what does that mean?" Glenn asked in a rush.

"I don't like the way Jenner clammed up - the way he just wandered off like that." Shane said.

"What's wrong with him? Seriously, man. Is he nuts, medicated, what?" T-Dog wondered.

Rick looked to a map. "In there." He pointed.

They got to the basement, turning lights on.

"Check that way." Rick said. "Shane." They went a different way as Glenn and T-Dog checked the other.

Rick finally found the generator. "It's empty." Rick noted.

_Emergency lighting on. _The lighting darkened.

Glenn and T-Dog rushed to Shane and Rick.

"Hey, you guys killed the lights?" Glenn asked.

"Nah, it just went out."

"Anything?" Rick looked at Glenn.

"Yeah, a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count." T-Dog said.

"It can't be down to just that one." Shane looked at Rick.

* * *

Everyone came from their rooms.

"Why is the air off and the lights in our room?" Carol asked.

"What's going on?" Daryl asked too, holding a bottle. "Why is everything turned off?"

Jenner grabbed Daryl's bottle. "Energy use is being prioritized." He took a sip from the bottle.

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale wondered.

"It's not up to me, zone 5 is shutting itself down.

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl snapped.

Jenner continued walking as others catched up with him.

"Hey, man, I'm talkin' to ya. What do ya mean it's shuttin' itself down?" Daryl asked more questions. "How can a buildin' do anythin'?"

"You'd be surprised." Jenner shortly replied.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick walked to him.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached

the half-hour mark. Right on schedule."

Jenner gave the bottle back to Daryl who quickly grabbed it.

"It was the French." Jenner said.

"What?" Andrea asked.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till

the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Tess asked.

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs of fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"

Rick stopped Shane from attacking Jenner. "To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!"

Rick shouted.

Everyone rushed as an alarm started.

"What's that?"

_30 minutes to decontamination._

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Shane yelled.

The doors suddenly closed.

"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn panicked. "He just locked us in!"

Daryl fumed, trying to attack Jenner as T-Dog and Shane stopped him.

"Hey, Jenner, open that door now." Rick demanded.

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well, open the damn things." Daryl huffed.

"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."

"What is?" Rick looked at Jenner. "What happens in 28 minutes?"

Rick got really frustrated. "What happens in 28 minutes?!" He yelled.

"You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't

want getting out! Ever!" Jenner stopped, sitting back down to his computer. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure...in a terrorist attack, for example - H.I.T.S are

deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out.

"H.I.T.S?" Rick asked.

"Vi, define."

_H.I.T.S - High-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives coexists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of a significantly a greater power and duration than _

_any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is used when the greatest loss of life and _

_damage to structures is desired._

"It sets the air on fire." Jenner said.

Tess started sobbing, falling to sit on the floor.

"No pain. An end to sorrow, grief, regret." Jenner paused. "Everything."

Daryl threw his bottle at the door. "Open the damn door!" He shouted.

"Out of my way!" Shane took an axe, as Daryl did too - hitting the door with them.

"You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier." Jenner said.

"Easier for who?" Lori grunted.

"All of you. You know what's out there...a short, brutal life and an agonizing death. Your...your sister...what was her name?" Jenner pointed at Andrea.

"Amy." Andrea answered.

"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and son?" Jenner looked at Rick.

"I don't want this." Rick said emphatically.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher."

"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl ran, swinging the axe at Jenner.

Rick, Dale and T-Dog quickly held Daryl.

"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."

Rick looked at Lori who was clearly shocked.

"What? You really said that?" Shane asked. "After all your big talk?"

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?"

"There is no hope. There never was."

"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere..." Rick got cut off by Andrea.

"What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?"

"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

Tess held tightly her hands around her knees, lowering her head and crying. This was just too much.

"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol sobbed.

"One tiny moment...a millisecond. No pain." Jenner explained.

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." Carol cried.

Shane took out his gun as Rick tried stopping him.

"Stay put of my way! Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!"

"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this." Rick tried calming Shane down. "We will never get ouf of here."

"Shane, you listen to him." Lori sternly said.

"He dies, we all -"

Shane started yelling.

"...we all die! Shane!"

Shane started shooting the computers wildly, as Rick got a hold of him and took the gun away from him.

"Are you done now? Are you done?" Rick fumed at him.

"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane answered.

Everything grew quiet, as Rick glanced over the room.

"I think you're lying." He finally spoke out.

"What?" Jenner asked.

"You're lying - about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise." Jenner pointed to something. "To her - my wife."

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asked.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She

was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just...Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about

this - not me." Jenner finished.

"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. Thats'...that's all we want...a choice - a chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori said.

"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." Jenner pressed something and the doors opened.

"Come on!" Daryl shouted.

"Hey, we've got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn yelled.

T-Dog grabbed Jacqui who stopped.

"No, no, I'm staying." Jacqui said. "I'm staying, sweetie."

"But that's insane!"

"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out." Jacqui cried.

Dale looked confused as Jacqui walked back to the room. Daryl grabbed his stuff and quickly scanned around the room. Jacqui and Andrea were staying too. And also -

"Tess, what the fuck are ya doin'?" Daryl walked to her.

She was leaning on one of the computers; not in any mind to move.

"I'm staying. What? You got a problem?" She said coldly.

"Yeah, I do." His voice softened. "I don't want ya to."

"Daryl. I don't want to end up like Jim or Andrea. Please, just get out." Tess sobbed.

"No."

"I said get the fuck out, please!" She cried.

Daryl continued staring at her, not moving. "Look this is really hard for me to say." Daryl started. "I'm sick of losing people. And in no way I'm lettin' ya do this." Daryl

grunted as he grabbed her to his shoulders, starting to run.

"Daryl! What the fuck are you doing?! Put me down!"

"Goddamnit, yer stronger than this! I know it!" He grunted.

Tess stopped her struggling. "Put me down. Let's run before time runs out."

He let her go as they made their way out of the broken glass. She saw a glimpse of Dale and Andrea coming from behind them.

They were almost at the cars, when Lori yelled from the window of RV. "Everyone, get down! Down!"

Daryl pushed her down next to his truck as a huge explosion started. As everything quieted down, they got up slowly.

"Come on." Daryl said.

Tess was gasping, still shocked from everything.

"Ya a'right?" Daryl asked carefully.

She only looked at Daryl, pulling him into a hug.

"Thank you."

* * *

**Wow, this came out longer than I expected! Well, I hope you enjoyed it and I'll be looking forward to write next chapters ^^ I can finally actually get this story kind of started as this one was following the last episode of season one. I apologize if there are any sort of spelling mistakes. This was a really long chapter so I expect there might be some. Critic and reviews welcomed! **


	4. Chapter 4

They drove down the route, hoping to find some place for rest. Andrea watched Shane, who was cleaning his gun. Tess sitting next to her.

"Looks complicated." Andrea said.

"The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way." Shane responded. "I could clean yours, show you how. How about you, Tess?" He asked from Tess

who was on her own thoughts again, looking through the window.

"I guess she's not in the mood to speak - looks more like she's interest in looking at Daryl." Andrea smirked.

Tess reacted and looked at Andrea, nudging her shoulder as Andrea laughed.

"Cut it out, I don't even know him well." Tess snarled. "Besides, I was thinking of something else - about are we gonna find a place to stay."

"Don't worry 'bout it, we will find it soon." Shane said as he took Andrea's gun. "Oh yeah. It's a sweet piece." He admired the gun.

"It was a gift, from my father. He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves."

Andrea said.

"Smart man, your father." Shane mused. "Look, it's a - it's a limited capacity. See? Only holds seven rounds." Shane explained as Dale cut him off.

"Oh jeez."

They looked over to the road what was blocked with abandoned cars.

"Aw no." Glenn sounded disappointed.

Daryl drove next to Dale's window with his motorcycle.

"See a way through?" Dale asked him.

Daryl looked behind him as he shook his head towards it.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back." Glenn suggested. "There's an interstate bypass -"

"With what fuel?" Tess dismisses, cutting him off.

They continued driving slowly forward, hoping there could be a pass through the cars. The abandoned cars reminded of how many people there could have been killed

while waiting to get out. Some of the cars flipped upside down - some filled with dead passengers.

"Dear lord." Tess whispered, staring through the window.

A loud bang came when RV started smoking from the front. Dale didn't look so happy about it. All stepped out of the RV.

"I said it. Didn't I say it?" Dale said. "A thousand times. Dead in the water." He continued, walking to check out the radiator hose.

"Problem, Dale?" Rick asked.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of -" Dale watched Daryl who searched through a car's trunk. "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane said.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl spoke.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog said.

"Maybe some water." Carol noted.

"Food." Glenn said.

"This is a graveyard." Lori said.

Nobody didn't say a word when she spoke again.

"I don't know how I feel about this." Lori muttered.

T-Dog walked out to maybe find some fuel.

"Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." Shane announces.

Tess walked with Lori and Carol plus their kids as they searched supplies from the cars. Carol found a red shirt, thinking if she should take it.

"That would fit you really well." Tess smiled.

Carol gave a smile, continuing to search through the car. "Ed never let me wear nice things like this - we're gonna need clothes."

"Yeah, I'm tired of wearing same clothes." Tess mumbled, finding a greyish shirt; taking it to her backpack. "I'm gonna check that van over there." Tess pointed to a

brown van as Carol nodded to her.

Tess opened the back door which was slightly open, looking inside and making sure there weren't any walkers. As it was clear, she searched through a small backpack

what was found laying on the floor. Finding more clothes only from there, she shut down the door and continued the search from other cars. She couldn't see any of

the group nowhere. A moving figure catched her eye as she saw many of them - walkers.

"Oh shi-" Tess crouched down behind a car backing away from the direction the walkers were coming from. Something suddenly grabbed her from behind, she almost screamed but a hand covered her mouth.

"Don't scream." Daryl's voice said. He pushed her down, under the car. "Don't move and shut up." He whispered really quietly, ducking under the car himself too.

Her heart raised as she saw walkers walking next to the car; there was a lot of them. Daryl noticed her shake, obviously Tess was scared.

As everything silenced, they got up. Tess catched a glimpse of Sophia running into the forest with two walkers chasing her - Rick running after them. Carol came from

under a car, trying to run too but got stopped by Lori.

Minutes passed by, but Rick and Sophia were nowhere to be seen. Carol was crying a lot, Lori and Tess trying to calm her down.

Something came out of the woods - it was Rick, but without Sophia.

"Wh-where's my baby?" Carol sobbed.

"Don't worry, Carol. We're gonna find her. I need help." Rick said.

Glenn, Shane and Daryl joined Rick as they went back to search in the forest. Later Shane and Glenn came back, leaving Rick and Daryl to look out for Sophia.

Tess and others were finding supplies as Dale, Shane and Andrea moved cars.

"Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?" Carol asked Dale.

"We have to clear enough room so I can get the RV turned around as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to bypass that Glenn flagged on

the map." Dale responded.

"Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess." Shane said.

"We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back." Carol remarked.

"Hey, that goes without saying." Lori said.

"Rick and Daryl they're on it, okay?" Shane noted. "Just a matter of time."

"Can't be soon enough for me. I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it." Andrea said as she drank water.

"Yeah what was that?" Glenn wondered. "All of them just marching along like that."

"A herd. That sounds about right." Shane said. "We've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. Some wandering pack, only fewer." Shane sighed. "Okay - come

on, people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on."

* * *

It was evening and Rick and Daryl hadn't still come back. Carol was waiting and staring into the forest, hoping they would come back with her daughter. Tess walked

up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Carol reacted then looked back at the forest.

"It's late. Gonna be dark soon." Carol said.

"They'll find her, for sure." Tess gave a smile to her as Carol nodded.

"Where's my gun?" Andrea snapped at Dale. "You have no right to take it."

"You don't need that just now, do you?" Dale questioned.

Andrea told Dale that her father gave it to her, claiming it to be hers. Shane wondered about the small fight they were having and asked if everything was okay.

"No, I want my gun back." Andrea complained.

"I don't think it's a good idea right now." Dale said.

"Why not?" Shane asked.

Dale told about he wasn't comfortable with it as Andrea chuckled, looking at Shane and hoping to have some support from him. Shane agreed with Dale though, saying

it was better if there were less guns floating around camp. Andrea asked about if he was gonna give away his weapon then. He only laughed, saying he wasn't gonna

do it since he was at least trained in its use. Mentioning also that rest of the group needed the proper training in using weapons.

"...but until that time I think it's best if Dale keeps them all accounted for." Shane finished.

Tess had heard the conversation. "Oh, no way Shane. I ain't gonna give my gun to the old man. I have been with it in the forest for who knows how long and I

survived." Tess said, touching her holster as she realized the gun wasn't there; glaring at Dale. "I must have left it on RV's table..so it means that you - fuck." She

cursed, sighing and sitting on a car.

"Mind telling me what that's about?" Shane asked Dale.

"Oh god, they're back." Glenn said surprised.

Only Rick and Daryl came, Sophia hadn't been found yet.

"You didn't find her?" Carol started crying.

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." Rick said to her.

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own - to spend the night alone in the woods." Carol sobbed.

"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people get lost." Daryl noted.

"But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own." Carol panicked. "You didn't find anything?" She looked at Rick.

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Rick tried calming her down.

"And we tracked her for a while." Daryl added.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this." Rick said.

"Is that blood?" Carol asked and looked at the blood stains on Rick and Daryl's clothes.

"We took down a walker." Rick explained.

"Walker? Oh my god." Carol panicked even more.

"There was no sigh it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick assured.

"How can you know that?" Tess asked.

Rick looked at Daryl for help in this.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure."

Carol sat, terrified and deadly worried. She finally looked at Rick. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" She spat. "How could you just leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance." Rick tried telling her.

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane spoke out.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol cried. "She's just a child, she's just a child."

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make."

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane said.

Carol was silent. "My little girl got left in the woods." Her voice broke.

It was the last drop for Rick, he nodded; walking away from others to be alone.

* * *

The next morning Rick was arming the group with knives Carl found from a car.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asked.

"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick and I are carrying." Shane said. "We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea said.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it."

Tess puffed, crossing her arms. "I'm telling you, I'm only gonna take my gun, nothing else." Tess demanded.

Daryl shook his head. "Well, good luck killin' a walker with yer nail file." He joked.

Tess couldn't help but smile a bit as she finally decided to take one of the knives.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark." Daryl

announced.

"Stay quiet, stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick told.

Andrea went to Dale, still asking for her gun. "I won't go there without my gun. I'll even say please."

"I'm doing this for you." Dale said.

"No, Dale, you're doing it for you. You need to stop. What do you think's gonna happen? I'm gonna stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to

me?" Andrea fumed.

"I know you're angry at me. That much is clear. But if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead now."

"Jenner gave us an option, I chose to stay."

"You chose suicide."

"So what's that to you? You barely know me."

"I know Amy's death devastated you."

"Keep her out of this. This is not about Amy. This is about us."

Some of the group followed the tense fight between Dale and Andrea. Tess sighed, she had never seen Andrea that angry before.

"And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?"

"I saved your life."

"No, Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left the building." Andrea huffed. "What did you

expect? What I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?" She yelled.

"Maybe just a little gratitude." Dale replied.

"Gratitude? I wanted to die my way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale."

"But-"

"But you know better?" Andrea shook her head. "All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting

anyone else. You took my choice away, Dale. And you expect gratitude?" She cried.

Tess lowered her head as it reminded her she had tried that choice too.

"I don't know what to say." Dale silently said.

"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife. And I am sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say." Andrea walked away, leaving Dale as they went out to

search Sophia.

* * *

They walked in the forest as Daryl spotted a tent. He gestured to Rick about the tent and Rick told everyone to get low.

"She could be in there." Shane said.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl said as he walked forward, his crossbow ready in case of a surprise. Rick and Shane followed him as Daryl gestured

he would check out the tent first. Taking his knife, Daryl carefully peeked through the tent door, unsure what's inside of it.

Rick told Carol to come, explaining that she should try calling out her daughter softly - Carol's voice needed to be the one Sophia should hear first.

"Sophia, sweetie. Are you in there?" Carol softly called out. "Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby."

There was no response, so Rick showed Carol to stay there. Shane and Rick had their guns ready, Daryl slowly opened the tent's zipper. A horrible smell inside of it

caused Daryl to cough. He stepped inside, only finding a dead person who had shot himself in the head. Daryl found a gun laying on the floor, picking it up.

"It ain't her." He came out of the tent.

"What's in there?" Tess asked.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl said.

A loud noise of church bells from nearby startled everybody. They ran towards the noise, hoping it could be Sophia setting them off. Finding a small church, Shane

insisted it's the wrong one, because it didn't have a steeple. Yet, they made a run for it as they approached the church and stopped at the door. With guns ready, they

opened the door and found few walkers sitting on the church seats. Rick, Shane and Daryl killed the walkers quickly. The church was silent after it, no trace of Sophia.

"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane said as the bells started ringing again.

Everyone ran outside and found the automated bell toll around the side of the building. Glenn unhooked the bells finally.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol said as Carl, Rick, Glenn, Tess and Daryl followed her. Andrea stayed outside to take some rest. Soon, Lori arrived inside as Carol

prayed for her daughter. As she finished, they left the church, only Tess staying inside. She walked over to the statue of Jesus and crouched down to pray. Without

noticing him, Daryl came to check why she was trailing behind from others.

"I-I'm not much of a believer myself, I know. I haven't even done this for a long time either. I just want to pray the safety of...Kelly, p-please let her be safe. A-and..."

Her voice broke. "My lil' Sam...I hope he's doing fine." She started crying. Daryl watched her and felt a little pity; wondering what she's been through. He left, deciding it

would be best to leave her alone.

"What she's doing?" Rick asked as Daryl walked back.

"She was just praying for some people. Didn't want to bother her as it looked like she was touchy about the subject." Daryl said.

Rick nodded, looking over to the forest all by himself.

"Got to move here, man." Shane walked to him. "These people are spent. There's only so many hours of daylight left. We still got a long way back."

"I can't stop yet." Rick responded shortly.

"We still got a lot of ground to cover, whole other side of the Creek Bed. So we search that on the way back."

"She would have heard those church bells. She could be nearby."

"She could be a lot of things." Shane said.

"I can't go back. Her being out here is my fault."

"That's great. Now they got you doubting yourself, huh?"

"What about you? You doubt me?" Rick looked at Shane.

"Hey, we can assign all kinds of blame."

"This means something, finding her." Rick whispered. "It would be the miracle we need. We can't give up." Rick said.

Shane nodded, giving a pat on Rick's shoulder he walked away. Tess stepped out of the church, Daryl's look of worry on his face a bit.

"You okay?" Lori asked from her as she noticed her wiping tears off.

"Yeah, yeah - I'm okay." She whispered, giving a smile.

"Y'all gonna follow the Creek Bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge." Shane announced. "Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or

so just to be through."

"Yer splittin' us up. Ya sure?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

"I want to stay too." Carl said. "I'm her friend."

Shane didn't look so sure as he looked at Rick and then smiled.

"Just be careful, okay?" Lori asked Carl.

"I will." Carl answered.

"When did you start growing up?" Lori hugged Carl.

Rick gave a gun to Lori as Lori denied, saying she can't leave him unarmed. Daryl gave Lori the gun he found from the tent and gave a nod to Rick.

Walking through the forest, Carol broke the silence.

"So this is it? This is the whole plan?" She asked, sitting on a fallen tree in the ground.

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl sighed.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks." Andrea said. "I see you have a gun." She looked at Lori.

"Why? You want it? Here, take it." Lori handed over the gun to her. "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." She said sternly. "All of you." Lori sat down almost next to

Carol. "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you

look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard

decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently." Lori sternly continued. "Anybody?" She looked over to others. "Y'all look to him and

then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." Lori finished.

Andrea handed over the gun back to her. "We should keep moving." She said.

Meanwhile, Rick, Shane and Carl searched the woods, they heard sounds and noticed a deer. Shane raised his gun to shoot it, but Rick held him back as curious Carl

moves slowly closer. Carl smiled as he turned back to Rick and Shane, who watched. The deer stared back at Carl calmly.

A sudden gunshot came and the deer fell, Carl along too down to the ground, blood seeped from his chest.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, guys! Here's the chapter 5! It took a bit longer than I expected. Just wanted to shout out about a video 'trailer' I made for this story. Feel free to check it out! Link on my profile. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

"Shot? What do you mean shot?" Dale asked.

"I don't know, Dale. I wasn't there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori." Glenn explained.

"You let her?"

"Climbed down out of my asshole, man. Rick sent 'er." Daryl said. "She knew Lori's name and Carl's."

"I heard screams - was that you?" Dale looked at Andrea, she didn't answer but just walked off.

"She got attacked by a walker. Close one." Tess said.

"Andrea, are you all right?" Dale shouted at her.

Andrea turned around and stared, then stepped in to the RV without saying anything. She was obviously still terrified about the attack.

Carol sat on one of the cars, staring into the forest. Tess sat next to her, Carol didn't react in any way.

"She's still there...she's still there.." Carol looked as she was about to cry.

"She's alive, Carol. We will find her, for sure." Tess held a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you." Carol whispered, sniffing. "I know you don't know how it feels to lose a child, but it's really painful, you know? You just have to pray and keep guessing."

Tess froze, opening her mouth to say something, but getting up and walking farther from the group. Carol got up, looking at her way.

"Tess? Tess?!" She yelled after her, but she couldn't hear a thing. Emotions flowed from her. Tess sat on a car, away from their stares. She broke down into tears,

memories racing back at her.

"Carol? What was that? Where the hell she went?" Daryl walked to Carol.

"I-I don't know, maybe I said something wrong." Carol wondered.

Daryl sighed, shaking his head. "I'll go talk to 'er." He headed to find her from the puzzle of cars. He heard her sobbings.

"Hey, ya a'right?" Daryl's raspy voice made her lift her head. Her eyes were red from crying, breathing shakily. Tess swallowed, turning her head away.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Please - I just need some time alone." Her voice sounded weak.

"Y'know, it's dangerous being this far alone. Ya should at least come closer to the group."

Tess sighed, wiping tears away. "Fine." She answered shortly, getting up.

She walked to the group, reviewing couple stares but she ignored it. Tess climbed up the ladders of the RV, Dale was sitting up there, giving a smile to her as Tess

walked to him.

"Hey, everything okay?" Dale asked a bit worried.

Tess nodded, sniffing. "D-do you mind if I keep watch with you?" She asked.

"No, not at all." Dale smiled.

"Thank you." Tess whispered, sitting next to him.

"I won't do it. We can't just leave." Carol refused about the suggestion.

Tess followed as others were having an argue; she didn't want to be part of it.

"Carol, the group is split. We're scattered and weak." Dale said.

"What if she comes back and we're not here?" Carol asked. "It could happen."

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea said.

"Okay. We gotta plan for this. I say tomorrow mornin' is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here

tonight, stay with the RV." Daryl said.

"If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale told.

"Thank you. Thank you both." Carol was grateful. Daryl just gave her a short nod, looking at Andrea.

"I'm in." Andrea raised her hand, staring at Tess who was sitting on top of the RV.

"Yeah, count me in then too." Tess replied.

"Well, if you're all staying them I'm -" Glenn got cut off by Dale.

"Not you, Glenn - you're going. Take Carol's cherokee."

"Me?" Glenn sighed. "Why is it always me?"

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on - but most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has

gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke." Dale

explained.

Daryl headed to his bike, opening his backpack and taking a sac. "Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." He threw the rag for Dale. "Why'd ya wait till now to

say anythin'? Got my brother's stash. Crystal, x- don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers." Daryl threw the painkillers for Glenn. "Doxycycline. Not the generic stuff

neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion."

Dale grinned, looking at T-Dog.

* * *

Later, in the evening everyone were trying to get sleep. Dale was on the watch. Andrea was cleaning guns, Carol cried softly back of the RV.

Tess couldn't just get sleep. Maybe it was Carol's painful cry or what she said today - she didn't know. But getting some sleep was least of her worries. Daryl stood up,

grabbing his crossbow.

"I need my clip now." Daryl said silently. Andrea handed him over his clip.

"Where are you going?" Tess rose up to sit.

"I'm gonna walk the road, look for the girl." Daryl responded, looking at Carol who heard him. Daryl gave her a short nod, leaving the RV.

"I'm coming with you." Tess stepped out of the RV, closing the door.

"I'm going for a walk. Shine some light in the forest." Daryl said to Dale. "If she's out there, give her something to look at."

"You think that's a good idea right now?" Dale asked.

"Dale. We'll be okay." Tess said, heading to the forest as Daryl followed her.

There was a small silence between Tess and Daryl.

"You think we're gonna find Sophia?" Tess broke the silence.

Daryl pointed his light at her face. "Ya got that look on yer face same as everybody else. What the hell's wrong with ya people? We just started lookin'."

"You didn't answer my question." Tess said. "Do you?"

"It ain't the mountains of Tibet. It's Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time."

"She's only 12."

"Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost. Nine days in the woods eating berries, wiping my ass with poison oak. "

"They found you?" Tess looked at Daryl.

"My old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doing another stint in juvie. Didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back thought. Went straight

into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. No worse for wear. Except my ass itched somethin' awful."

Tess couldn't help, but crack a smile and laugh. "I'm sorry." She coughed. "I'm sorry, that's a terrible story." She continued laughing.

"Only difference is Sophia's got people lookin' for 'er. I call that an advantage." Daryl said.

Daryl suddenly pointed his crossbow as he heard something. Tess followed him, he made his way towards the noise.

They found a tent, which didn't seem to have any life near it - except a person, who had turned into walker, hanging from a rope.

"What the hell?" Daryl stared at it. He noticed a note on a tree. "_'Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit_.' Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself

in the head. Turned himself into a big swingin' piece of bait and a mess." Daryl noted.

Tess held a hand on her mouth as she looked away.

"Ya alright?" Daryl asked.

"Trying not to throw up." She answered.

"Go ahead if ya gotta."

"No I'm fine." Tess coughed.

"Look at 'im, hangin' up there like a big pinata. The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs." Daryl said.

She coughed more, about to throw up. "Okay, I'm good."

"Huh, let's head back." Daryl was about to leave.

"Aren't you gonna.." Tess pointed the walker with her flashlight.

"No. He ain't hurtin' nobody. Ain't gonna waste an arrow either. He made his choice. Opted out. Let him hang."

Tess walked closer to the walker, feeling pity to him.

"Ya wanna live now or not?" Daryl asked suddenly from her.

Tess stared at him, saying nothing.

"It's just a question." He said.

She looked back at the walker for a second and then turned back at him. "An answer for an arrow." Tess spoke. "Fair?"

Daryl nodded.

"I don't know if I want to live. I kind of regret the choice I made back there, but again - I don't regret it. I wanna believe that I will find people who I can trust and be

with. I have gone too much shit, but I now I know I won't give up easily."

Daryl didn't say anything, as he pointed his crossbow at the walker, shooting it to the head. "Waste of an arrow." He said.

Tess took one last glance at the walker as she followed Daryl, heading back to others.

Daryl slowed down, glancing over to the left and then right. It was making Tess nervous.

"What is it?" She whispered.

He didn't say anything as he pushed her down to the ground, keeping an arm around her shoulders. "A herd."He silently said. "Better not waste arrows to kill those

things. They are just passin' by."

Daryl was so close to her, it was almost making her cheeks burn up. She heard the snarls of the walkers who headed deeper into the forest. As the last one of them

was far enough, Tess sighed of relief. They both rose up.

"D-Daryl?"

Daryl looked at her, she looked frightened. He couldn't stand her looking like it - he couldn't stand anybody looking like that.

"What?" Daryl asked from her.

She just stared at him, until suddenly she closed the space between them and hugged him tightly. Daryl was surprised, awkwardly taking a hold from her elbow.

Nobody never hugged him, the only one who had hugged him was her.

"I can't take it - being scared to death every day. It takes a lot of strength from me, getting used to world going to hell." Tess sniffed. "But for some reason - I don't

feel so scared around you." She finished, pulling away, turning away from him. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what got to me. We should head back, others are probably

waiting for us." Tess said.

Daryl didn't speak out a word, just nodded and they finally made their way back to others. Both didn't say anything as they stepped in to the RV.

* * *

The next morning they headed to the farm where half of the group already was. Rick stepped out of the house with his group, along with Hershel and his family.

"How is he?" Dale asked.

"He'll pull through, thanks to Hershel and his people." Lori said.

"And Shane." Rick added. "We'd have lost Carl if not for him."

Dale went to hug Rick, looking very relieved about the news.

Tess hurried to hug Lori. "I'm so happy to hear that, we were so worried." Tess said.

"How'd it happen?" Dale questioned from Rick.

"Hunting accident. That's all...just a stupid accident." Rick replied.

Everyone stood in a circle as they held a memorial for Otis, who had sacrificed himself to save Carl's life.

"Blessed be God, father of our lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to him, for the gift of our brother Otis, for his span of years, for his abundance of character; Otis, who gave

his life to save a child's, now more than ever, our most precious asset. We thank you, God, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. He died as he lived, in Grace."

Hershel talked with a bible on his hands.

Shane seemed lost in his thoughts as Hershel spoke to him. "Shane, will you speak for Otis?"

"I'm not good at it." Shane answered. "I'm sorry."

"You were the last one with him. You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had a meaning." Patricia sobbed.

"Okay." Shane shortly replied. "We were about done. Almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols by then. I was limping. It was bad. Ankle all swollen up. 'We've got

to save the boy.' See, that's what he said - he gave me his backpack. He shoved me ahead. 'Run,'he said. He said, 'I'll take the rear. I'll cover you.' And when I looked

back..." Shane paused. "If not for Otis," he limped to take a rock. "I'd have never made it out alive. And that goes for Carl too. It was Otis. He saved us both. If any

death ever had meaning, it was his." Shane finished.

Patricia nodded, crying. Shane went and placed the rock to the pile.

* * *

"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asked.

"This'll be day three." Shane answered.

Maggie walked with a map, placing it on a car's hood. "County survey map. Shows terrain and elevations. "

"This is perfect. We can finally get this thing organized." Rick said. "We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."

"Not you. Not today." Hershel cut him off. "You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out." He looked at Shane. "And

your ankle...push it now, you'll be laid up a month, no good to anybody."

"Guess it's just me." Daryl said. "I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there."

"I can still be useful. I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back." Shane said.

"All right, tomorrow then." Rick nodded. "We'll start doing this right."

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them." Shane noted.

"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp." Hershel spoke out.

"All due respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here..." Shane hinted to him.

"Look, we're guests here. This is your property and we _will _respect that." Rick said, looking at others and putting his gun on the car's hood.

Shane followed him, taking his gun too and placing it away.

"First things first; set camp, find Sophia." Rick said.

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to." Shane started. "What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we should all be clear on how we handle

that."

"You do what has to be done." Rick responded.

"And her mother? What do you tell her?" Maggie asked.

"The truth." Andrea shortly replied.

"I'll gather and secure all the weapons. Make sure no one's carrying till we're at a practice range off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience."

Shane explained.

"Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." Rick stared at Hershel, waiting for his answer to it. Hershel thought for a second and then nodded.

"Thank you." Rick said.

Daryl and Shane left, as Tess quickly followed Daryl. "Wait, Daryl." He turned around, Tess made her way next to him as they walked. "You're not seriously thinking

about going out there alone?"

"I'm better on my own. I'll be back before dark."

"We have a base. Rick can have this search properly organized." She said.

"Ya got a point or are we just chattin'?"

"I wanna come with you."

"No. Like I said, better on my own. Don't wanna focus on searchin' and coverin' yer ass at the same time." Daryl firmly said.

Tess sighed, stopping. "I don't wanna be here doing nothing but twiddling my thumbs. Please. You would have your own ass covered."

Daryl laughed, looking at her. "Yer one stubborn, aren't ya?"

"Not as stubborn as you." She smirked.

Daryl shook his head. "Not gonna take any risks." He finished, walking away.

"Hey!"

Tess turned around, noticing Shane.

"You coming to practice with us?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah - sure." She nodded, following him.

They first visited the highway. They had left supplies and a note on the car's windshield for Sophia. The supplies were still there, meaning she hadn't been there.

"We'll come again tomorrow." Andrea said to Carol, disappointment on her voice. "You know there's always the chance..."

"Don't. I really don't need to hear it anymore, Andrea. Save the thoughts and prayers." Carol said.

Shane and Andrea left, as Tess gave a light tap on Carol's shoulder, following Shane and Andrea.

* * *

In the evening, Tess was placing her tent as Lori and others were making food on a campfire. Daryl had come back from his searching trip, it was relieving nothing had

happened to him.

"Hey." She greeted him.

"Hey." He said back, sitting on one of the chairs.

"Carol told me about the flower. She was very happy and grateful from it. That's really sweet coming from you." She gave him a smile.

"Yeah, it ain't nothin'." Daryl mumbled.

"You going searching again tomorrow?"

"Yup."

"I'm joining that one." Tess announced.

Daryl chuckled, looking at her. "We really need to go through this again?"

Tess nodded. "I feel like a deadweight to this group now. Please, let me help you. Do you want me to beg or something?"

Daryl sighed, getting up to go and set a tent for himself. "Fine, girl. Ya got it. But ya better be alert tomorrow while on it." He finished, walking away.

Tess smiled, leaving to help with the food.


	6. Chapter 6

"All right, everyone's getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have gone further east than we've been so far."

Rick said.

"I'd like to help." Jimmy spoke up. "I know the area pretty well and stuff."

"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, he said I should ask you."

"All right then. Thanks."

"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me." Shane said. "Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse."

"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea pointed out.

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high." Daryl said.

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again." Rick said.

"No maybe about it. I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid." Daryl pointed from the map. "If she's up

there, I'll spot her."

"Good idea." T-Dog nodded. "Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too."

"Chupacabra?" Rick raised an eyebrow.

"You never heard this?" Dale asked. "Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a

chupacabra."

Jimmy laughed at this.

"What are ya brayin' at, jackass?" Daryl glared at him.

"So, you believe in a blood-sucking dog?" Rick asked.

"Do you believe in dead people walking around?" Daryl shot back.

Jimmy tried taking a gun, Rick stopped him. "Hey, hey. Ever fire one before?" Rick took the gun.

"Well, if I'm going out, I want one." Jimmy answered.

"Yeah, and people in hell want slurpees." Daryl said.

* * *

Daryl headed to get a horse and found Tess already saddling the horses.

"Wow, wouldn't have believed ya would actually come." Daryl walked to her.

"You thought I would chicken out?" She asked.

Daryl nodded. "Yeah, maybe."

Tess sneered, getting up to the horse. "So, you coming or what?"

Daryl got up on the horse and she followed him to the forest.

It didn't take much, about couple minutes until Daryl fired his crossbow at a squirrel. They continued heading forward as Daryl slowed down at a river.

"What is it?" Tess asked.

Daryl didn't answer, getting off the horse. "I think I see somethin'. Wait 'ere." He said.

He headed down to the river, lifting a small doll from the ground. Daryl looked around, yelling for Sophia; there wasn't an answer.

He got back to the horse, continuing the way.

"I think it would be a better idea if we split up a bit. Gives a better chance to see her." Tess suggested.

"Ya can handle it?" He asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

Daryl nodded and Tess changed direction with her horse. Daryl went forward, a couple of birds flew near as the horse was startled a bit.

"Whoa. Easy, easy." Daryl calmed the horse down.

He looked around, not noticing a snake on the horse's way. The snake hissed, making the horse panic and it whinnied. Daryl tried to make the horse calm down again,

but it didn't help anymore. He fell off the horse, rolling down the hill - the horse running away.

She swore she heard something, but decided to ignore it. Tess suddenly heard a sound, like a horse's gallop. A horse passed by her, realizing it was the same horse

Daryl had, but he wasn't on it.

"Daryl?!" She shouted, quickly changing her direction back where Daryl had been.

Tess was scared, afraid something had happened to him. "Daryl!" She continued yelling. She looked down to a river, noticing something laying on it.

"Son of a bitch." Tess heard Daryl curse.

"Daryl?!"

"Tess?! Is that ya?"

"What happened?! Are you alright?!"

"Not much, just have an arrow going through me from my left side!"

"I'm gonna find a safe spot to get down there!" She climbed off the horse, trying to quickly find a spot where to head down. The hill was very steep, so it was hard.

Daryl got up, slowly making his way off the water. He cut his shirt with a knife, tying his wound with it - grunting as he did so. Tess knew he was hurt, so she finally

found a spot what was well enough for her, heading down the hill. She was almost down, when she managed to slip and fell a small distance.

"Fuck." Tess cursed.

Daryl heard rustling from the bushes, aware what there might be. He noticed he didn't have his crossbow, it was somewhere in the water. Daryl used a stick to explore

and try to find the crossbow from the bottom of the river. He found it fast enough.

Further away from him, Tess rose up from the ground. Grabbing the gun what had fallen from her holster. A noise startled her, looking around she didn't see anything.

Tess took her knife, knowing it wasn't smart to use a gun. It would just attract more walkers. A snarl from behind her made Tess turn around, stabbing it to the head.

It fell down to the ground. She arrived to find out Daryl was nowhere to be seen. His figure suddenly fell down the hill.

"Daryl!" She rushed to him, kneeling down.

_Daryl opened his eyes, seeing his big brother Merle in front of him._

_"Why don't you pull that arrow out, dummy?" Merle said. "You could bind your wound better."_

_Daryl smiled a bit. "Merle." He muttered._

"Merle?" Tess questioned. "What the hell are you talking about? Daryl?"

He wasn't responding.

_Merle gave a goofy smile. "What's going on here? You taking a siesta or somethin'?" He asked._

_"A shitty day, bro." _

_"Like me to get your pillow? Maybe rub your feet?" Merle asked._

_"Screw you." Daryl answered._

_"Huh-uh. You're the one screwed from the looks of it. All them years I spent trying to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at you. Lying in the dirt like a used rubber._

_ You're gonna die out here, brother. And for what?"_

_"A girl." Daryl said. "They lost a little girl."_

_"So you got a thing for little girls now?"_

_"Shut up."_

_"'Cause I noticed you ain't out lookin' for old Merle no more."_

_"Tried like hell to find you, bro."_

_"Like hell you did. You split, man. Lit out first chance ya got."_

_"Ya lit out. All ya had to do was wait. We went back for you. Rick and I, we did right by you."_

_Merle tilted his head. "This is the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand? This him we're talkin' about here? Ya his bitch now?"_

_"I ain't nobody's bitch."_

"Daryl? Are you hallucinating or something?" She tried shaking him. Tess heard a growl, looking around and noticing a walker heading towards them. "Dammit." She

muttered, taking her knife again. She hurried to go and kill it. Tess was successful in it, another one walking from behind her. She turned around as the walker was too

close, kicking it to its stomach. The walker fell, turning to its back and crawling towards her. Third one appeared what drew her attention, focusing to stab the third one.

_"You're a joke is what ya are, playin' errand boy to a bunch of pansy-asses, niggers and democrats." Merle chuckled. "You're nothin' but a freak to them. Redneck trash. That's_

_ all you are. They're laughin' at ya behind your back. You know that, don't you? I got a little news for you, son. One day they gonna scrape ya off their heels, like ya was_

_ dogshit." Merle said. "Hey. They ain't your kin, your blood. Hell, ya had any damn nuts in that sack of yours, you'd got back there and shoot your pal Rick in the face for me._

_ Now ya listen to me. Ain't nobody ever gonna care about ya except me, little brother." Merle tapped Daryl's cheek. "Nobody ever will." Merle nodded. "C'mon, get up on your feet_

_ before I have to kick your teeth in." He kicked Daryl a bit. "Let's go."_

Daryl snapped back to reality, seeing a walker on him. He backed away gasping, kicking it off. The walker on the ground grabbed Tess' leg, pulling her so she fell on her

back. Daryl used a stick to kill a walker who had attacked him.

The walker started to crawl at her. Tess kicked it to the stomach again, making it fell on its back too. The walker rose up, rushing at her. She was holding it from its

shoulders, trying to get it off her. She was scared, screaming to get it off. Daryl ran to her, pushing the walker off her and using the stick again to hit the walker to the

head. The stick sank to the walker's head, killing it. Tess gasped, looking for her knife as fourth walker showed up. She noticed her knife further away from her,

crawling desperately at it. Daryl pulled the arrow from his side, grunting and putting it to his crossbow. As the walker was about to attack him, he fired his crossbow

and the walker fell down dead.

Tess rose, grabbing her knife. They were both panting, relieved it was finally over.

"Ya alright?" He asked from her.

"Yeah, I guess. You?"

"Alive at least." Daryl got up, taking his shirt and tying it around the wound. "Get the horse of yours and head back to the farm. I'll be right behind ya."

"What?" She snapped. "I can't leave you like that. Are you even able to get up by yourself?" Tess asked.

"Yeah, yeah - just freakin' go. I'm able to take care of myself, I have always done that." Daryl huffed.

Tess knew the argue would go on forever with him, she was worried about leaving him alone. She decided he could manage hopefully, he had survived alone before.

She climbed up carefully, getting on the horse and leaving. As she came back to the farm, Rick questioned her right away. "Where's Daryl?"

"He said he's gonna be right back. I don't know what the hell he was doing. I didn't want to leave him, but he was just too stubborn, I knew I couldn't do anything

about it." Tess sighed.

Rick nodded.

"Walker! Walker!" Andrea yelled.

Rick hurried. "Just the one?" He asked.

Andrea looked with binoculars. "I bet I can nail it from here." She said.

"No no, Andrea. Put the gun down." Rick demanded.

"You'd best let us handle this." Shane said.

"Shane, hold up. Hershel wants to deal with walkers." Rick said.

"What for, man? We got it covered."

Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog rushed across the field. Andrea scored through her rifle.

"Andrea, don't." Dale said.

"Andrea, listen to him. Don't do it." Tess said to her.

"Back off." Andrea responded.

Rick and others got to the walker, Rick pointed his gun at it.

"Is that Daryl?" Glenn asked.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head." Daryl snapped. "Ya gonna pull the trigger or what?"

A gunshot was heard as Daryl fell on the ground.

"No!" Rick yelled.

Andrea looked happy that she had hit 'the walker', but as she heard Rick's worried voice, she frowned. Tess was the first one to go and run there. Hershel and others

came from the house, wondering what was going on.

Tess got closer, she noticed it was Daryl. "D-Daryl?!" She panicked.

Andrea and Dale came too rushing.

"Oh my god, is he dead?" Andrea cried.

"Unconscious. You just grazed him." Rick replied.

"But look at him. What the hell happened? He's wearing ears." Glenn said.

Rick grabbed the ear necklace off Daryl. "Let's keep that to ourselves."

"Guys, isn't this Sophia's?" T-Dog asked, holding a doll.

* * *

Tess was waiting outside the room, Rick stepped out as she rose up right away.

"He'll be alright." Rick nodded.

Shane came out from the room as Tess went inside. Hershel was taking care of Daryl's wound.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey." Daryl answered.

"How are you feeling?" Tess asked.

"As good as I look." He grunted.

"It should be all good now, you just rest." Hershel got up, leaving and closing the door.

Tess sat on a chair. "I feel like this is partly my fault." She mumbled.

"Nah, it ain't. It's because of the stupid animal what threw me."

The door opened, Carol peeking out from it. "Hopefully I didn't interrupt anything. Just wanted to tell the dinner's ready." She said.

"Don't worry, you didn't. But thanks I'll be there in a second." Tess smiled.

Carol nodded, closing the door.

"I guess I should go. I'll bring some food for you, if you're hungry."

"I'm fine." Daryl shortly answered.

"Yeah, right." She stood up, giving a quick kiss on his forehead. He looked surprised by it.

"Watch out, I got stitches." Daryl said.

She gently tapped his shoulder after it. "Get better." Tess walked off the room.

Later, at the dinner table it was quiet and a bit of awkward.

"I should go bring some dinner to Daryl." Tess whispered to Carol.

"I can do that if you want to." Carol said to her.

"Really? I would appreciate it."

Carol nodded, taking a plate, putting food to it and leaving.

After eating, Tess headed to her tent. She laid on her bed, staring up.

"I know I can't stay for any longer. I'll be gone in next couple days, in the evening when everyone is sleeping. They won't even know I'm gone." She thought.


	7. Chapter 7

Everyone were quietly sitting in the camp, eating breakfast. Glenn stood up from his chair, walking slowly in front of the group. He was thinking for a moment, until

finally he spoke out.

"Um, guys." Glenn started. "So...the barn is full of walkers." He blurted.

The group was deadly quiet, staring at him; clearly shocked about the news. It wasn't more than few minutes, before they all left to head for the barn - making sure

Glenn was telling the truth. Shane peeked out from a crack inside the barn. Couple growls and mourns were heard as Shane walked back to others.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this." Shane said.

"No, I'm not. But we're guests here. This isn't our land." Rick replied.

"Oh god, this is our lives!" Shane shouted.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea spoke.

"Okay, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time." Shane

continued.

"We can't go." Rick huffed.

"Why, Rick? Why?" Shane questioned him.

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol said.

"Okay." Shane chuckled shortly. "Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"Shane, we're not leaving Sophia behind." Rick stated.

"I'm close to finding this girl." Daryl stepped into the scene. "I just found her damn doll two days ago."

"You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll." Shane firmly said.

"Ya don't know what the hell yer talkin' about." Daryl snapped.

"I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours." Shane fumed.

"Shane, stop." Rick tried calming Shane down.

"Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would

run in the other direction." Shane shouted.

Daryl had enough as he cursed at Shane. Rick stepped in before nothing happened, Lori and Glenn helping him out.

"Keep your hand off me." Shane grunted, walking away from others.

"Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick said.

"What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane turned around, screaming at him.

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land." Rick pointed at the barn.

"Hershel sees those things in there as people - sick people. His wife, his stepson." Dale spoke.

"You knew?" Rick asked.

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel." Dale answered.

"And you waited the night?" Shane asked.

"I thought we could survive one more night. We did." Dale looked at him. "I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one." Dale said.

"The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no." Shane kept shouting.

The barn door rustled wildly, startled by the yelling. It scared the group a bit, deciding it would be best to leave it here for now.

* * *

Tess loaded her gun, placing it on her holster. She stepped out of her tent, meeting up with Carol.

"Hey." Tess greeted her.

"Hey." Carol said back. "You going somewhere?" She eyed Tess' weapon.

"Yeah - just for a small forest walk." Tess answered.

"Alone? Are you sure?"

"I'll be fine, don't worry."

Carol nodded. "Be careful then."

Tess gave a reassuring smile to her, walking away. She remembered something, turning around. "Oh hey, Carol." She started. "Could you talk to Daryl? He seems still

pretty pissed off and it looked like he was gonna head out. We both know it's not a good idea now."

"Sure." Carol smiled.

"Thanks." Tess replied, leaving.

The forest seemed peaceful for her, it almost felt like nothing was wrong - that the world was normal. Tess sighed, knowing it wasn't the only reason she came here

for; she had to find a good spot, where she could leave without nobody noticing. The silence was interrupted by a growl; it was somewhere near. Tess took out her

knife just incase. She saw the walker, sneaking to it and killing it from behind. Tess continued her way, until something startled her and maybe scared her a bit; _a _

_gunshot. _Was there somebody in the forest? Was Rick and others in trouble? No, it couldn't be. This shot was near and she wasn't any way near the farm; they weren't

out here. She decided she would head back before anything would happen. Another shot flew through the air, it was making her feel uneasy. Speeding up, Tess

started running. The gunshots were even closer and closer. She looked behind her, seeing nothing until something stopped her. Her foot had got stuck in to a swamp.

"Fuck." Tess cursed, putting her weapon down on the ground and trying to free her foot.

Her foot only sank more, making her balance hard as her other foot was still on dry land. She had no other option but to move her other leg closer, otherwise she

would fall. Tess felt herself sinking more down into the swamp.

"Anybody?! Please, help!" She yelled, knowing it could be risky.

Tess panted, starting to panic. She was now all the way down to her hip in there, continuing to go even further. Tess didn't know what to do, no matter how hard she

tried getting out - she only went down even more and more. Until it was only her shoulders and head in sight.

Tess thought she saw somebody coming towards her, but the swamp was fast and got her.

It was black, nothing but black for her. Had she died?

Her eyes shot open, seeing something blurry in front of her. Tess' vision cleared out, a gun pointed at her head; she was laying on her stomach. A sudden force got her

up, harshly throwing her back on the ground. Much to her luck, to a rock. It hurt her head badly, feeling the fresh blood dripping down from her head.

"Who the hell are you? Are you bit?" A voice asked.

Tess was heavily breathing, trying to get words out from her mouth.

"Answer me!" The voice shouted angrily.

"No. I-I'm not bit. N-name's Tess..." She coughed.

The gun lowered down from the man's hand. "T-Tess? Tess Adler? Is that you?"

It took a moment from her to recognize this man. "J-John? You...you're alive.."

"Oh my god, Tess. I'm so sorry, I thought you were a walker. What are you doing here all alone?" John got on his knees.

"I-I...I'm not alone. I have a group I'm with." She swallowed. "In a farm not far from here. Awh, my head." Tess complained.

"Shit. Don't worry, I'll get you back there. Can you walk?" He asked.

"I d-don't know.." She blurted out, but felt herself blacking out.

* * *

Back in the farm, Carl was playing a game with Patricia and Beth. Maggie and Glenn were sitting on the porch's stairs.

Andrea and T-Dog arrived.

"Where is everyone?" Andrea asked.

"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn wondered.

"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple of hours ago." Andrea answered.

"Yeah you were. What the hell? And where's Tess?" Daryl came with Carol.

"Rick told us he was going out. And Tess left in the forest, I don't know why." Carol said.

"Damn it. Isn't anybody takin' this seriously?" Daryl snapped. "We got us a damn trail."

"Hey guys." Andrea spoke. "Is there something coming from the woods? Or am I the only one who sees it?"

They turned around to spot a figure walking out of the woods.

"Must be a walker." T-Dog said.

"Looks like it's carrying something." Carol said.

"We should check it out." Glenn suggested.

Daryl, Glenn and Andrea headed to find out, running across the field. Now they could see better, it was a man carrying somebody on his arms. As they got closer, they

pointed guns at him.

"Don't shoot me. This is a friend of yours, am I right?"

Daryl looked down at his arms, seeing the familiar face of Tess.

"What did ya do to her?" He spat.

"Wasn't me. I'll tell you later, just help her."

"I swear I'll shoot an arrow to your ass if ya did somethin'." Daryl said.

"Let's just get her to the farm quick." Andrea said.

They rushed to the farm, gaining attention of the others.

"Oh my god, is that Tess?" Carol asked.

Patricia rose up, stepping down the stairs. "Hershel isn't here now, but I don't think we'll need him - looks like it's only a head wound. Come on, let's get her inside."

She said, leading the way into the house.

The man laid Tess to a bed as Patricia started cleaning her wound and putting a band-aid to it.

"We never got your name and what happened to her?" Andrea looked at the guy.

"It's John. She was sinking to a swamp, I managed to get her out of there. I first thought she could have been a walker and kind of threw her in to the ground - Tess

blacked out after it. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

"Son of a bitch." Daryl cursed.

"Relax Daryl. Wait - how'd you know her name?" Glenn asked from John.

"I know her. We used to be in the same group, until the biters came and took almost everybody. I thought she was dead too." John responded. "Is this every one of

your group?" He asked.

"No, some of us aren't here. We don't exactly know where they are." Andrea explained.

John nodded. "Okay. I just wanna make sure she's fine and I'll be on my way."

"You got a group?" Glenn asked.

"No, I'm on my own."

"We need to talk, I hope you don't mind." Andrea said, pushing Daryl and Glenn out of the room.

"Not at all." He replied, sitting on a chair.

They closed the room's door, so he wouldn't hear.

"I don't trust this guy." Daryl said.

"One thing what bothers me...can we just let him go? What if he's lying? I mean what if he has a group out there? They could come and attack us."

"No, no - that can't be possible. I mean Tess was in the same group as he and she's not like that. She was an outsider back then too and now she's part of this

group." Andrea replied.

"Things have changed. This guy could easily walk out, come back with a group and shoot us." Daryl huffed.

"We'll need Rick in this. Let's wait until he comes back and then we will think about this. Okay?" Glenn suggested.

"Okay." Andrea replied.

They returned back to the room to check if she had awaken yet. Tess was still laying on the bed with her eyes closed, until she started slowly opening her eyes.

"W-where am I?" She quietly asked.

Andrea walked to her. "You're back in the farm, resting on a bed. You had a head wound and blacked out. He brought you back." Andrea looked at John and back at

Tess.

Tess gave a small smile to John and rose to sit.

"Woah, I think you should rest for a while." Patricia noted.

"No, I feel fine. Can't I just go sit outside?" Tess asked.

Patricia sighed and nodded. "Fine."

Tess slowly got herself up, having support from John. Everyone headed out, Carol came to her right away.

"Are you alright? What happened?" She asked.

"I'm fine now, Carol." Tess smiled, sitting on one of the porch's chairs.

Shane walked back with a hurry. Daryl went to meet with him, wondering why he was in such a hurry.

"What's all this?" Daryl asked.

"You with me, man?" Shane questioned, holding a gun on his hand.

"Yeah." Daryl answered, grabbing the gun.

"Time to grow up." Shane said. "You already got yours?" He looked at Andrea.

"Yeah. Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way." Shane replied.

"Thought we couldn't carry." T-Dog said.

"We can and we have to." Shane said. "Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we

know it ain't." Shane walked to Glenn. "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?"

Glenn looked at Maggie, then grabbed the gun.

"That's it. Can you shoot?" Shane looked at Maggie.

"Can you stop? You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight." She said.

"What is this?" Lori arrived.

"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" Shane assured. "Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He - well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia.

Am I right?" Shane headed to Carl, kneeling in front of him. "Huh? Now I want you to take this." Shane held a small gun in his hand. "You take it, Carl, and you keep

your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it."

Lori stepped in front of Carl. "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make." Lori spat.

"Oh shit." T-Dog said.

They saw Jimmy, Rick and Hershel returning with two captured walkers.

"What is that?" Shane started running towards them. Others followed, trying to stop him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shane shouted.

"Shane, just back off." Rick grunted.

"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked.

"Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?" Shane spat.

"I see who I'm holding onto." Hershel said.

"No, man, you don't."

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk."

"What you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them 'cause all they do, they kill! These

things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us."

"Shane, shut up!" Rick yelled.

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane shot the walker what Hershel was holding.

"Stop it!" Rick continued shouting.

"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" Shane shot multiple shots at the walker. "That's its

heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" Shane shot again.

"Shane, enough." Rick snapped.

"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." Shane said, walking to the walker and shooting it to the head. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough

living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough. Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it!

I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." Shane rushed to the barn door.

"Take the snale pole. Hershel, take it! Hershel, listen to me, man, please." Rick shouted.

Shane hit the barn door with a pickup axe, trying to break the lock. Rick tried stopping him, but it was no use anymore.

Shane managed to get the lock, banging the door. He took his weapon, waiting for the walkers to come out. First walker came out, other walkers following it. Shane

started shooting them as T-Dog, Daryl, Glenn and Andrea joined him. Rick yelled them to stop, but it didn't work. As the last walker was shot down, it was quiet. A

growl came inside the barn. A small walker stepping out from it. It lifted its head, recognizing it as Sophia. Carol cried, running towards her, Daryl stopping Carol.

Sophia stepped slowly towards them, across all the dead walkers. Rick walked in front of everyone, taking his gun out. He pointed the gun at her, he had a moment of

hesitation before pulling the trigger. Carol sobbed on the ground, Daryl lifted her up. Carol struggled away from his arms, leaving the situation. Hershel and his family

were shocked. Tess left, she couldn't stand being near the barn anymore after this. She came across John who had seen everything from a small distance.

"Hey, what was that?" He asked.

"It's just...we were looking for this little girl so long, only to find out that she.." She paused.

"Okay, I get it. Sorry."

"It's alright, I know you must be confused."

"No, I mean. Sorry, about both. I thought you were a walker and -"

"Don't worry about it anymore."

"I'm glad you're okay. I was about to leave here."

"What? You're leaving?"

"Yeah, I'm alone. I just don't want to bother your group. Doesn't seem like best time for it."

Tess nodded. "Are you sure? I could -"

"No, I'm sure. I'm used to travel alone and would be weird changing that habit. But maybe we'll meet again."

"I was happy to know you're alive. Just stay that way, alright?" Tess gave a smile to him.

"Sure, I'll try. Maybe I'll find a group of my own. But I guess it's a goodbye." John said, tapping her to the shoulder as he left, taking his bag. Tess went to find Carol,

she found her sitting in the RV, Daryl was with her.

"They're ready. Come on." Tess said.

"Why?" Carol asked.

"'Cause that's your little girl." Daryl said.

Carol looked at them. "That's not my little girl. That's some other _thing. _My Sophia was alone in the woods. All this time I thought...she didn't cry herself to sleep. She

didn't go hungry. She didn't try to find her way back. Sophia died a long time ago." She finished.

Tess didn't know what to say, knowing Carol would need a little time alone. She slowly left the RV. Hershel had gone to a bar so Rick and Glenn went to look for him.

Lori told Beth was in a shock and they needed Hershel to come back and suggested if Daryl could help out. Tess said she could go talk to him. She found him far away

from the farm.

"Daryl. Beth's in a shock. We need Hershel." Tess headed to him.

"Yeah. So what?" Daryl said.

"So we need you to run into town real quick and bring him and Rick back. Daryl?"

"You want him? I'll fetch him your horse. I got better things to do."

"What's wrong with you?" She asked.

Daryl rose quickly. "Listen to me here. I was out there looking for that little girl every single day. I took a bullet and an arrow in the process. You want those two idiots?

Have a nice ride. I'm done looking for people."

Tess sighed, leaving back to the farm.

"So, what he said?" Lori asked.

"Basically, he said 'Screw you'."

"I'll go there then." Lori said shortly.

"Alone?"

"Yes, alone. There's nothing to worry about." Lori continued, walking to her car.

"Lori!" Tess yelled after her, but she didn't listen. "Dammit."

* * *

It was evening and after Lori left, none of them had come back. Tess was back in her tent, bitter about the cold shoulder Daryl gave to her. She understood he was

mad about the Sophia thing. She heard others outside, she left her tent to find out what they were talking about.

"Aye, what's happening here?" She walked to them.

"Lori's missing. You know where she is?" Dale asked.

"Yeah, she left to find Rick and others."

"You knew about this?" Shane spat.

"I tried to stop her. I didn't want her to go alone." Tess defended herself.

Shane headed to his car, shutting the door and leaving.

Tess headed to the place where Daryl was last time. He had set up a camp and tent there. It was quiet and he was nowhere to be seen. Tess noticed some dead

animals hanging from a tree.

"What are you doing?" Daryl came.

"Came to say goodbye." She answered.

"So what? Yer leaving now when the group's fallin' apart, huh?"

"No. I'm leaving to find my family. Should've done it some time ago already. I'm just a dead weight here."

"Family? Like that Johnny boy? Ya think they're still alive? What a waste of time, I tell ya." He huffed.

"Go ahead."

"Go ahead and what?"

She stayed quiet, staring at him.

"I mean just go! I don't want ya here!" Daryl shouted indifferent.

Tess sighed. "I know you're angry about what happened at the barn, I understand it fully. You have earned your place here." She paused. "I'll be gone by morning."

She walked to him, gently putting a hand to his right cheek and giving a kiss on his left cheek. "Goodbye, Daryl." Tess finished, leaving. He didn't say a word, just stood

there.

* * *

**Finally got chapter 7 finished! I apologize if there's any spell mistakes, it's pretty late here. Anyways, reviews greatly appreciated :)**


	8. Chapter 8

She was gone. Daryl was sure of it. He had checked out her tent - it was empty.

Lori had been found by Shane, she had an accident with her car while trying to find Rick. She had couple minor wounds, but she was fine.

Shane, Glenn and Daryl were preparing to go into town to get Rick and Hershel back. Andrea joined them as she looked around then back at the others.

"Has anyone seen Tess? Isn't she joining us?" Andrea asked, putting her bag into the car.

"She's gone." Daryl shortly answered to her, focusing on reloading a shotgun and being like he hadn't even noticed he said it.

"Gone? What do you mean gone?" Andrea looked at Daryl.

"Left. To find her family." He replied indifferent.

"That girl is taking hell of a risk trying to find her family, could end up getting herself killed." Shane spoke, backing guns into the car.

A car drove to the farm - Rick and others were finally back.

"Who the hell is that?" T-Dog pointed into the car, a young boy sitting with a blindfold covering his eyes.

"That's Randall." Glenn said.

The group didn't look too happy - they had another problem to deal with.

Daryl was away from others, in his own camp. Dale walked to him, Daryl wasn't so glad about it.

"The whole point of me comin' up here is to get away from ya people." Daryl scoffed.

"Gonna take more than that." Dale replied.

"Carol send ya?" Daryl asked.

"Carol's not the only one that's concerned about you, your new role in the group." Dale continued.

Daryl rose up to glance at him. "Oh, man, I don't need my head shrunk. This group's broken." He paused. "I'm better off fendin' for myself."

"You act like you don't care."

"Yeah, it's 'cause I don't." Daryl took his jacket.

"So live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?" Dale asked.

"Nope."

"Then why not stand with me, try to save the kid's life, if it really doesn't matter one way or the other?"

"Didn't peg you for a desperate son of a bitch."

"Your opinion makes a difference."

"Man, ain't nobody lookin' at me for nothin'." Daryl grabbed his crossbow, about to leave.

"Carol is, and I am. Right now." Dale paused. "Tess was too."

Daryl turned to look at him.

"And you obviously - you have Rick's ear." Dale continued.

"Rick just looks to Shane. Let him." Daryl snapped.

"You cared about what happened to Sophia."

Daryl was about to leave off, until he stopped again at the mentioning of Sophia.

"Cared what it meant to the group." Dale said. "Torturing people? That isn't you."

Daryl walked to him.

"You're a decent man." Dale stated. "So is Rick. Shane - he's different.

"Why's that? 'Cause he killed Otis?" Daryl asked.

Dale was surprised by this. "He tell you that?"

"He told some story - how Otis covered him, saved his ass. He showed up with the dead guy's gun. Rick ain't stupid. If he didn't figure that out, it's 'cause he didn't

wanna." Daryl said. "It's like I said - group's broken."

"Has this something to do with Tess leaving?" Dale retorted.

Daryl chuckled about it. "No. It hasn't nothin' to do with her. It was her own damn decision, I don't care about it." He huffed.

"I've seen the way you two spent time together, the way you looked at her sometimes. I know there was something going on with you to her. You're just upset about

everything else, you don't know what you're saying, Daryl."

Daryl shook his head, leaving. "I think somethin' is playin' a trick on yer eyes, ya should go check them." Daryl grunted.

* * *

Tess stepped out of an abandoned house where she had spent her night. There were couple walkers in there, but it wasn't something she couldn't have taken care of.

She headed to the forest, continuing her way. Tess still had in mind Rick's group. She felt bad about leaving them, but she knew she had made a right decision. Tess

was deeply in her thoughts, when a noise startled her. She expected it to be a walker, but couldn't see anything. Taking her gun, she looked around. Something made

her fall, holding her with a hard grip on the ground. Tess felt a hand on her shoulder, it couldn't be a walker.

"Well, well. What we got 'ere?"

That _voice_. She recognized it.

"Merle Dixon." She grunted.

"Oh, huh? Ya remember me, sugar? Good to see ya again, it's been so long." Merle laughed, pulling her up. He noticed her gun on the ground, grabbing it to himself.

"Any other weapons? Hand over."

Tess bit her lip, not saying a word. She slowly took her knife out, handing it to him.

"Good girl. Lost yer voice or somethin'? Walker got yer tongue?" Merle held a gun on her back. "Are ya alone?"

She swallowed. "Yes."

Merle tilted his head. "Yer comin' with me then." He pushed her to other direction. "Go that way."

There was a car waiting on side of the route, Merle made Tess sit on passenger's seat as he made his way to the driver's seat.

Merle glanced at her, a smirk growing on his face. "C'mon, thought ya would be glad to see me, honey."

"Not really." She answered blankly.

"Oh, but I know who would." Merle grinned. "That lil' boy of yours."

He had finally gotten her attention as she stared at Merle, he continued smirking.

"Yeah, that's right."

"He better be alright." Tess firmly said.

Merle didn't say anything as they arrived to their destination. He got off the car, walking to the other side of the car and opening the passenger's door. "Get out."

She got off the car, Merle still pointing the gun at her.

"Merle, you don't need to point that thing at me anymore. I'm on your side, you should know that." Tess said.

Merle smiled, putting the gun away. "Come on." He said.

There was a long, big barrier around a small town - _Woodbury. _

Merle nodded to couple guys with guns who were watching over on the barrier, one of them went down to open the gate.

Tess followed Merle as they went inside, she was relieved and bit of happy to see many people there, _alive. _It was a rare sight these days.

"Ya can sight see later, girl. Come on in." Merle opened one of the house's door, she stepped inside after him. He knocked at one of the doors, opening it. A figure

turned around in a chair, staring at her.

"Tess Adler? I already thought you were dead, you had been gone for so long."

"Governor." She murmured.

"Glad to know you still remember us." He gave a smile.

"Where's my son?" Tess quickly said after him.

"Your son's safe - with your sister. You can go see him soon." Governor replied. "But first - how was your mission?"

"Fine. Didn't come across much groups though."

Governor laughed, crossing his arms. "Don't tell me you have survived alone all this time."

Tess opened her mouth to say something, but she thought for a second. "I was in one group."

"Oh?" Governor looked at her with interest.

"Yeah." She paused. "But they were weak - broken. No supplies, guns, anything. I had been with them for some time. They won't survive for long."

He nodded. "Alright."

"I'm sorry." Tess mumbled. "There's hardly any people here anymore surviving."

"It's fine, Tess - really." Governor said. "You can go now."

Tess was out in a flash, she was wondering about the Governor's reaction, but all she cared was to see her son. She rushed to the house where she and her sister

had stayed before she left. Tess touched the door knob, her hand shaking. She finally twisted it, the door creaking a bit. She carefully walked over to the kitchen

doorway, peeking slowly from it. A figure was cleaning the dishes, as the person turned around, Tess recognized her sister's face.

"T-T-Tess...? Oh my god." Her sister almost broke down to tears. "You're alive!" She rushed to hug Tess tightly as she could.

"Kelly, you're fine! I'm so relieved." Tess' voice shook.

Tess let go of her sister after a few minutes, looking at her. "Where is he?" She asked.

Her sister smiled. "Sam! Come look who's here!" She shouted.

A small boy walked into the kitchen doorway. His eyes widened as he noticed who it was

"S-Sammy!" Tess cried, her voice breaking.

"Mommy!" Sam ran to hug his mother, Tess was sobbing and holding him tightly.

"Oh god, how much I missed you, baby boy." She whispered to him, kissing him on the forehead.

Tess sniffed, holding her son in her arms.

"You need to tell what you have experienced, Tess. I'm still shaking." Kelly laughed. "I was so scared if something had happened to you - you were gone for so..." She sobbed.

"But I'm here now, aren't I?" Tess smiled, holding her son close.

Tess still wanted to some of her old friends in town after spending time with her sister and son. She greeted old neighbours, cooks, almost everyone - even noticing

some new faces. Still, she couldn't get Rick, Daryl - others out of her mind.

"Well, I'll be damned." A voice from behind her said.

She turned around, as hands grabbed her shoulders.

"John?" Tess was surprised he had made his way here.

"Yeah, I got here yesterday. They took me kindly in, finally a safe place. But I was really surprised to see you here, not like I'm not happy about it -"

"John."

"What happened to your group?" John asked.

Tess lowered her head and then quickly looked back at him. "They...I...I-I left." She said. "My family was here, I needed to see them again. I just had to."

John nodded, smiling. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna judge you or anything."

It was soon evening, Tess was back in the house with Sam and Kelly. She was sitting in the living room with John as Kelly was making dinner to celebrate that Tess

was back.

"John."

"Hm?"

"Could you do me a favor?" Tess asked.

"Depends."

"I need you to come with me - I have to check out the farm."

"Whatever you say." John said.

"Really?"

John nodded.

Tess gave him a warm smile. "Thank you."

"When do you wanna go?" He asked.

"After dinner."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't it be -"

"No, just please."

John sighed, looking at her. "Alright then."

Tess didn't wanna lie to her sister, so she told about it to her when they were eating. Kelly understood it, even though she was afraid of Tess going out there.

Soon enough, John and Tess headed outside, they only needed to get pass the guards - to her lucky, Merle was there too.

"What ya want, sugar?" Merle said to her.

"We need to go outside."

"Why?"

"The group I was with. I need to go see them." She paused. "I just need to see them, I won't talk or anything to them. You can trust me with that. I already talked

with Governor, he said I could even bring them here."

"Alright, just get the car and go." Merle said.

She left with John with his car, driving over to the farm. They stopped near the farm, walking rest of the way.

"What if they see us?" John broke the silence what was between them.

"Just let me take care of that, okay?" Tess said.

John nodded lightly to her. As they got closer, her confusion filled her mind. The barn was gone, _it was on fire. _The farm was filled with walkers. Tess dropped her

weapon, falling down to her knees.

"Oh dear lord, th-they.." She sobbed.

John kneeled beside her. "I'm sorry you had to see this."

"Maybe they survived." Tess said with a breaking voice. "Right?" She looked at John.

John just looked over to the farm then back at her. "Looks pretty bad to me." He carefully said.

Tess didn't say anything just covered her face with her hands, crying softly. Was it her fault? Did the walkers get out of the barn and killed Rick's group? She didn't

know - it was breaking her. John was about to put hands around her shoulders as she stood up, grabbing her gun.

"Let's head back." Tess sniffed, turning around to walk back at the car.

The silence was awkward in the car, she had no words for the moment. It was making her feel guilty. Maybe she could have helped them, maybe she could have saved

some lives. Had she been selfish?

They were back in Woodbury, she exited the car quickly but got stopped by John grabbing her hand.

"Tess, I hate to see you upset."

"I'll get over it." She muttered.

John took a hold from her face as he lifted it up to meet with his.

"Tess - back at the old camp where we were, when I met you..." John chuckled. "I knew we would become great friends - when you left, dammnit...I was so worried. I

wanted to go with you, but it wasn't possible." He sighed. "But my point - I just wanted to say that.." He took a hold from her hand with his other hand and sighed. "I

love you." He whispered**.**


	9. Chapter 9

_8 months later_

Governor was checking out a helicopter what had crashed in the woods. A couple of walkers appeared on them. Tess stepped out of a car, grabbing her bow. Young man aimed his small gun at a walker.

"Save those rounds until you need 'em." Governor noted to him.

"Out of the way, kiddo." Tess said, raising her bow to aim at a walker - hitting it in the head and walking to grab the arrow back.

Andrea and Michonne, who had saved Andrea from walkers long time ago, were hiding in the bushes - near Governor and his group.

They had noticed the smoke coming from the helicopter and came to see what was going on, until Governor showed up there.

Tess took out her knife, walking to another walker, kicking it to the ground and swinging the knife to its head. Another guy held a baseball bat, hitting walkers with it.

Andrea knew she recognized that face, Tess had left long time ago from her old group. Andrea had got separated from Rick and others when walkers came to the farm. Tess had changed; she wasn't scared of walkers anymore, she killed them without a problem, her aim now good and trained - she also kept her long hair on a ponytail.

Governor walked to the helicopter with one of his men, pulling the guy who had been in the helicopter out of it. A walker stepped out from behind Andrea and Michonne. Michonne was about to kill it with her sword, but got stopped by Andrea.

"No." Andrea whispered.

The walker didn't notice them, it just walked past them.

"Over here." A guy pointed at the walker.

Tess aimed her bow again, hitting it to the head again.

"Drag him out." Governor pulled the guy, laying him on the ground.

"He's saving them. We should show ourselves." Andrea said quietly to Michonne.

"Not yet." Michonne replied, looking through the bushes.

Governor stared at the guy for a moment before taking his knife. He quickly swung the knife to his head - he pulled the knife out and rose up.

He went to check the helicopter after it. Walkers in chains, without a jaw and hands, were Michonne's. They were getting wild as they tried moving forwards towards the Governor's group. A rifle guy noticed them, aiming his gun at them. Others noticed too, pulling their guns out.

Michonne hesitated for a second before getting up and using her sword to cut her walkers' heads off. Governor noticed it and Michonne crouched back to the bush next to Andrea. There was a moment of silence until Governor spoke out.

"Let's roll out." He said.

Andrea sighed of relief, lowering the gun she had on her hand. Michonne took out her sword, but a voice came from behind her.

"Uh-uh-uh, easy does it girl. Mine's a lot whole bigger than yours. Now put down your weapons."

Michonne slowly lowered her sword, without looking at the man behind them.

"That's it. Nice and easy. And let me see your hands."

Andrea and Michonne rose their hands in the air.

"Now spin around, that's it. Nice lil' twirld around."

Andrea turned around, seeing the familiar face of Merle with a gun on his hand, pointing at them - Tess next to her, sharply aiming her bow at them.

"Oh, holy shit. Blondie!" Merle said. "Damn, you're looking good." A walker appeared behind him as he easily without caring grabbed the walker before it attacked him, stabbing it with his small knife in his hand. "Now, how's about a big hug for yer old pal Merle?" He grinned.

Andrea stared at him, until she blacked out suddenly.

* * *

"Go check on your patient, Doc." Merle said walking in to the room where Andrea and Michonne were. "Bet you was wondering if I was real."

Tess slowly walked in to the doorway, with a rifle on her hands - staring at Andrea blankly.

"Probably hoping I wasn't." Merle continued, pulling a chair for himself. "Well, here I am." He chuckled, sitting on the chair.

"Y'know, when they found me, I was nearly bled out - starving. Thinking off putting a bullet into my head would make a good last meal. Take myself a nice long nap after. Wait for Daryl on the other side. Ya seen my brother?"

Andrea shook her head. "Not for a long time." She replied.

"Makes two of us." Merle nodded.

"He went back for you. Him and were already gone." She continued.

"Well - not all of me." Merle laughed, showing his cut off hand. "Yeah, Rick. He's that prick that cuffed me to the rooftop."

"Yeah - he tried. Daryl saw that." Andrea said, looking at his missing hand.

"He's always been the sweet one, my baby brother." Merle said.

"He wanted to keep looking, and things happened, people died. A lot of them." Andrea said.

It drew Tess' attention as she took her stare off the ground, looking at Andrea. Andrea noticed it, staring at her.

"Jim, Dale, Jacqui, Sophia..." Andrea paused. "Amy."

"Yer sister?" Merle asked.

"Yes." Andrea shortly answered.

"She was a good kid. I'm sorry to hear it." Merle said.

"There were more. A lot more. We had to leave Atlanta. We wound up on a farm and Daryl stepped up. Became a valued member of the group." Andrea explained.

"Now he's dead." Merle shortly uttered.

"I don't know that for sure. We got run off by a herd."

"How long ago?" Merle questioned.

"Seven, eight months." Andrea looked at Michonne. "I was separated from the rest of them. Got left behind." She nodded. "I know what it feels like."

"I doubt that." Merle looked at his hand. "I noticed ya two having eye contact. Ya seen each other before?" He glanced over to Tess and then back at Andrea.

"Yes." Tess shortly replied. "It was the group I used to be in for a while."

"Awh, so ya were in Officer Friendly's group? Well that sure is interestin'." Merle laughed.

"What you want from us?" Andrea frowned.

Merle starting at Michonne and then back at Andrea. "Damn." He rose up from his chair. "There she sits, four walls around her, roof over her head, medicine in her veins, and she wants to know what I want from her." Merle looked at Michonne. "I plucked you and your mute here out of the dirt, blondie. Saved yer asses. How about a thank you?"

"You had a gun on us." Michonne spoke up.

"So, she speaks." Merle laughed. "Who ain't had a gun on 'em in the past year, huh? Show of hands, y'all." He raised his own hand. "Anybody? Hmm?" He looked at others. "Shumpert, Crowley, Tess. Y'all had a gun on y'all?" Merle dropped his hand, looking at Andrea. "Hell - I think I'd piss my pants if some stranger come walkin' up with his mitts in his pockets. That's be the son of a bitch you'd really want to be scared of."

"Thank you." Andrea said right after he finished. Michonne looked surprised by it. Merle nodded, walking over to a door.

Andrea looked over to Tess, who was still standing on the doorway, leaning on it.

"Tess, you're..." Andrea started.

"We'll talk later." Tess interrupted her.

Governor arrived to the room, asking how Andrea and Michonne were feeling.

"We want our weapons." Michonne sharply stated.

Governor nodded. "Sure. On your way out the front gates."

"Show us the way." Andrea said sure. "You've kept us locked up in this room."

"You see any bars on the windows?" Governor asked. "You're being cared for."

"Under guard." Andrea replied.

"To protect our people. We don't know you."

"We know enough about you to want out of this place." Andrea said. "We watched you drive a knife into the skulls of two dead men. What the hell was that all about?" She cursed.

Governor looked confused. "They turned." He answered.

"They weren't bitten." Michonne snapped.

Governor stared at them and glanced over to Merle, who looked back at him. "Doesn't matter." He finally said. "However we die, we all turn." Governor told the terrible truth what grew Michonne and Andrea silent.

"I put them out of their misery." Governor continued. "It's not easy news to swallow at first, but there it is. You're not prisoners here, you're guests. But if you wanna leave, as I said, you're free to do so. But we don't open the gates past dusk; draws too much attention. And you especially, you need a solid night's sleep." He looked at Andrea. "You wouldn't last another day out there in your condition. Have you brought over to my place in the morning - return your weapons. Extra ammo, food for the road, some meds, keys to a vehicle if you want one." He finished.

Andrea looked over to Michonne who was narrowing her eyes and glaring at Governor.

"Send you on your way. No hard feelings." Governor left the room, walking the hallway and opening the main door. "Welcome to Woodbury." He walked down the stairs. "Come with me."

They arrived to a large gate with many guards.

"Are you military?" Andrea spoke up.

Governor smiled at the idea. "Hardly. Couple of vets, but by and large we're self-trained."

"That's heavy artillery they're packing."

"Some men arrive with guns, but most of the weapons are scavenged over time."

"And the other side of town? The rest of the streets? They're all guarded like this?"

Governor didn't answer her question.

"It can't be." Andrea refused to believe it.

"It can." He paused. "And it is."

Couple walkers appeared outside the gate as Merle and other guards started shooting them down.

Andrea first thought it was a ghost town as the town was dark and silent without any people around. Governor told her to follow him. He led them to their room and left. Michonne was worried about missing her sword, but Governor assured they'd be safe here. Andrea told Governor they appreciated it, even though she wasn't completely sure about the place herself.

* * *

Next day Andrea and Michonne were walking on the street, there were lots of people walking around there - it all looked so normal they couldn't believe it. Tess came across with them, greeting them.

"Hey, it's been a long time, Andrea." She said.

"Tess, it sure has been. I never thought I would see you again. You seem to have changed a lot." Andrea said.

"Yeah, after eight months - I have trained and well, to protect this town and my family."

"You left me, Rick and others? Why?" Andrea questioned.

"Look, it wasn't the most easiest decision I did but I had my reasons. It's a long story." Tess sighed and walked closer to her. "If I were you, I'd act nice towards him, the Governor. You don't know what he's capable of." Tess whispered, hint of worry on her voice.

Andrea looked at her confused, as Tess lowered her head. "I gotta go. Got work to do. I'll see you sometime." Tess left, seeming like she was almost hiding something.

"I don't like this." Michonne said sharply.

Andrea turned over to her as she spoke. "What do you mean?"

"That friend of yours, she looked hell of scared when she said about acting nice to him. Maybe she's just a prisoner herself in here." Michonne paused. "Maybe that 'Governor' is keeping her and other people here."

Tess went inside a building where Merle, Governor and a guy named Milton was.

"Remember that." Governor finished something he had said.

"Hey, sugar. It's time you show up." Merle grinned.

"Stop calling me that, Merle." Tess walked over to them.

"Tell me about the girl." Governor said.

"Name's Andrea." Merle said.

"You know her?" Milton asked.

"She's from that group in Atlanta?" Governor questioned.

"Yeah. Same one left me on the roof, forced me to mutilate myself. Seems she's was on the group too." Merle looked at Tess.

Governor turned at her, walking over to her. "You were in that group?"

"Yes." She shortly answered.

"I don't recall you telling me about it." He continued.

"I did. The weak group I told you about."

"Are you sure?" He narrowed his eyes.

"I know what I saw. Look, it's even fucking unsure are they alive anymore after that herd what destroyed the farm." Tess snapped.

Governor nodded. "Did you know Merle's brother, Daryl?"

"Yeah." She nodded.

Merle glanced over to her after her answer.

* * *

Later, Governor proceeded to go find the pilot's group, who were still maybe alive somewhere. The pilot of the crashed helicopter had told him their last location and he went to find them. As he noticed them on the side of a highway, he drove the car near them. They had their weapons ready to shoot and Governor showed a white scarf, telling them not to shoot him.

"Identify yourself." The leader of the group shouted.

"Hey, hey, hey! We found your guy." Governor stepped out of the car carefully, his hands raised in the air. "Wells. Lieutenant Wells. His chopper went down."

"Where is he?"

"We got a little settlement. Now, he's badly hurt - but he's alive. The other guys didn't make it, I'm sorry." Governor answered. "But Wells, he told me I would find you here. Wants to bring you to him." He finished.

"They found Wells. They got him. They found him." One of the group's members told others, they seemed happy about the news.

"We sure did. We found you, too." Governor smiled, pulling out his gun and shooting the leader of the group in the shoulder.

A gunfight started as Governor's own group showed up from the bushes, including Merle and Tess. They shot down all of the group.

Governor walked over to the leader of the group, crouching down and taking his rifle. He was still barely alive, coughing out blood from his mouth. Others ran to go and find weapons, supplies, anything this group had with them. Governor killed the leader with the butt of his weapon without showing any mercy to him. Tess had a sick look on her face as some others had too, but obeyed Governor without hesitation. One of the group's guys had survived, he came from the car and tried to sneak away and run from Governor as he raised his gun and shot the escaping man.

"Let's see what Uncle Sam brought us, shall we?" Governor said.

Tess searched through dead bodies on the ground, finding one behind one of the cars. He was still alive too, choking to his own blood. Tess bit her lip, crouching next to him.

"H-h-help m-me." He whispered, coughing a lot.

Tess frowned, pulling her gun out and aiming at his head. For the first time for a while, her hand was shaking - like it was the first times she ever killed walkers. She lowered her gun slowly, unable to shoot him.

"Let me take care of that, honey." Merle said, pulling out his gun and shooting him quick.

Tess continued to stare at the dead guy.

"Alright, people! I think we have it all! Let's head back!" Governor shouted.

She rose slowly, putting her gun in the holster and walking away.

After they got back to Woodbury, people started gathering around to know what had happened.

"We brought in three new people yesterday." Governor told the people. "One was a helicopter pilot with a National Guard outfit. Even though he's clinging to life, he told us about his convoy on the highway, his men." He paused. "I promised I'd bring them back here alive. But they didn't have our walls or our fences. Biters got there before we did."

Tess looked at him with a disgust on her face, she never got over how many times he had killed innocent good people, only to steal their supplies, and everything they had. He even lied to his own people.

"Now, the man had trucks, the trucks had weapons, food, medicines, things we need. Now, we didn't know them, but we'll honor their sacrifice; by not taking what we have here for granted. Won't be long before dark, so go on home - be thankful for what you have. Watch out for each other."

Tess clenched her fists tightly and hard - all she wanted was to scream out loud _bloody murderer_ at him. But she couldn't do it, nobody wouldn't believe her, her family was here, in this same town. He had threatened to kill her son, her sister, if she didn't obey him. She had to get Andrea, her family, everyone - away from Governor as far as possible.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hey Adler!" Merle shouted, wearing that goofy grin on his face like he always did whenever she saw him.

Tess walked to him, crossing her arms. "What do you want, Merle?" She asked.

"Michonne left - but we need to go find her. Ya comin'?"

"Sure." She replied. "I'll get my gun."

She walked inside her home, stepping to her room and grabbing the gun from a drawer.

"You're going out again, aren't you?"

Tess raised her head, seeing Kelly leaning on the doorway, a bored look on her face.

"It's my job, Kelly." Tess said at her sister sternly.

"I know it is." Kelly looked at the floor. "I'm just afraid when you go there, that you might not -" She sniffed. "You have been away a lot. It can't go on like this, Tess."

"Kelly." Tess started, putting her gun in to her holster, walking closer to her sister and grabbing her shoulders. "It's gonna be over soon. I promise." She assured.

"It's gonna be over?" Kelly looked at her, chuckling. "Over?" She repeated. "It's never gonna be over. Tess -" She paused. "Sam needs you here. Please."

Kelly stared at her with eyes full of hope, while Tess shook her head. "Don't bring him to this." Tess muttered, walking past her.

Tess headed to the gate where Merle and three guys were waiting. They opened the gate, walking out and headed to the woods.

The further they got, they noticed pieces of walkers laying on the ground.

"What the hell is this mess?" Merle wondered.

"She did this." One of the guys said.

"It means something, the way it's all set up like that." Merle pointed at the walkers.

"The Governor was right to send us out."

"Damn straight, Tim." Merle said. "We're doing all right, just public service here."

"Go back." The youngest of this small group said.

"What?" Merle looked at him.

The kid pointed at the walkers. "The arms are a _g_,the legs make an _o_,and that's a back. It says _go back._"

Merle laughed, clapping his hands. "This is too good. Look at this." He pointed. "She sent us a biter-gram, y'all." He laughed more.

"I don't believe this is happening." The kid said carefully.

Merle looked at him serious, like it was a death sentence to him. "Hey, hey! Ya knock it off." He grabbed the kid's shirt. "What the hell's wrong with you?"

"Back off, Merle." Tess said, stepping into the scene. "He's just a kid, he's learning."

"Ya stay out of this." Merle looked at her before turning his attention back to the boy. "Now, the Governor chose you 'cause he thought you were ready. I want you to succeed. I do. But if ya keep announcin' to the world that you're pissin' your pants, I'm gonna have to smash your teeth in." Merle stared at him and nodded, showing that he really meant it and tapped his chest. "Now how do ya say your last name?"

"Gargulio." The kid answered.

Merle nodded. "Well, I'm gonna keep callin' ya Neil. All right?"

They were about to continue their way when a noise came somewhere near. Everyone pulled their guns right away.

"What's the deal, Michonne? Hmm? Ya gonna leap out of the woods, one against four, all of us armed to the teeth and ya with just your little pig-sticker?" Merle said. "No, no, no, Michonne."

Tess sighed. "Merle, c'mon don't -"

Michonne jumped down from her hiding spot, slicing one of the guys' head off and stabbing another one in to the stomach. Gargulio backed off to a tree, scared to death. Merle started shooting towards Michonne, while Tess was just frozen on her spot, unable to shoot.

Merle ran after Michonne. Tess lowered her gun and rushed to Gargulio who fell on his knees, crying over the guys who were killed.

"Hey, you alright?" She asked softly.

"Man, this is just cruel." He sobbed.

"Let's go. She's hit." Merle came running back, reloading his gun. "Slowed her down."

"Tim and Crowley, they -" Gargulio started.

"We're close to the red zone. Them shots just pulled every biter in this area our way. Let's go - get up." Merle said and looked at him. "Neil!"

Before Merle managed to maybe kick or hit him, Tess stepped in front of the kid. "Don't come near him." She huffed. "He isn't used to this. Let him be for fucks sake, Merle."

"Aw, so yer finally stepping up a bit, huh?" Merle chuckled. "That's the way I like it." He smirked. "Now ya know, we don't ever let our own turn. Never." He walked to Crowley, stabbing him in to the head with the knife on his hand. "Come on. Just do it."

Gargulio took shakily his knife, stabbing quickly Tim to the head.

"Atta boy. Come on, let's get going." Merle said. "She ain't runnin', she's huntin'. So are we. There we go." He pushed Gargulio forward.

It was silent for a while, and they stopped to look around. Merle heard a noise quick enough to push the kid out of the way when Michonne came swinging her knife towards them. The kid fell on the ground while Merle and Michonne started a battle. Tess ran to Gargulio again, worried about this kid's life - he had a cut on his side. Tess heard a familiar noise and noticed walkers heading their way.

"Walkers!" She shouted, pulling out her knife.

Merle noticed, pushing walkers on the ground who were coming towards him. He had a walker attacking him, but the kid managed to save him. Tess took care of the last walker with her bow and when it was over, they noticed Michonne was gone once again.

"Ya rose to the occasion, kid. When we get back, I'm gonna get ya a beer." Merle said.

"Come on, she can't have made it that far." Gargulio said.

"No, no, no, no - we're done. We're gonna grab a car, haul ass home. It's been a good day's work." Merle responded.

"But she - she killed Tim and Crowley." The kid complained.

"Yep, but we messed her up pretty bad. Anyway, she's headed straight for the red zone. She's as good as dead."

"What do we tell the governor?" Gargulio sighed.

"What the hell ya think we tell him? Tell him we killed her. Like I said, man, she's as good as dead."

"I'm gonna keep going." The kid stated.

"She ain't right in the head. She's gonna die. Ain't worth our time. Definitely ain't worth our blood. Now let's go." Merle finished, about to leave.

"This is some serious shit, that's what you said. I'm not gonna lie to the Governor about it." The kid said.

Merle turned around, smiling. "You're right. Can't cut corners on this one. You've come along pretty quick there, kid." He paused. "How do ya say yer name again?"

Tess had stood there, listening to their ridiculous fight - she turned away to go and grab one of her arrows.

"Gargulio."

"Gargulio." Merle repeated. "Hear that bird?"

She winced as she heard a gunshot and shot up right away, turning to see Merle had shot the kid in the head. Merle grabbed the kid's gun what he had dropped. She stood there on her place, staring at Gargulio's body shocked.

"What are ya starin' at? Come on." Merle commanded.

She swallowed, taking a breath and following him. Merle turned around to take a look at her face, she was still clearly shocked he had shot the poor kid.

"What's with that face, huh? Ya look strange." Merle asked.

"Why? Why did you shoot him?" Tess looked at him.

Merle laughed. "Listen, I have my reasons. You? Just be quiet and listen to me, alright?"

She shot him a dirty look and he chuckled once again, stepping closer to her. He suddenly pushed her towards a tree, and she felt air rush out of her lungs from the force.

"Alright?" He asked again.

"Okay." She gasped.

"Good girl." He grinned, letting her go. "Let's move."

After it she followed him without saying a word. They came across a building, Merle hushed as he peeked out from the corner of the building. Tess heard voices, what seemed bit of familiar to her but she didn't know who they were.

"And where is it y'all good people are callin' home?" Merle left the hiding spot, showing himself and having his gun out. "Come on, back me up here girl."

Tess sighed, having her bow ready, stepping out and pointing it at the people who had guns on their hands too - until she noticed who they were.

"Maggie? Glenn?" Tess asked surprised.

"Tess? Merle?" Glenn was confused.

Merle suddenly started laughing, putting his gun down on the ground. "Wow!" He started walking towards them with his hands raised up.

"Hey, back the hell up!" Maggie shouted.

"Okay, okay, honey." Merle said. "Jesus."

"You made it." Glenn uttered.

Maggie glanced over to Glenn for a second.

"Can ya tell me, is my brother alive?" Merle asked, looking at Glenn. "Huh?"

"Yeah." Glenn shortly answered.

Merle seemed to sigh of relief after hearing it. "Hey, ya take me to him and I'll call it even on everythin' that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings. Huh?"

Glenn didn't answer but kept pointing his gun towards Merle.

"Ya like that?" Merle laughed, noticing Glenn looking at his cut-off hand what was partly a knife now. "Yeah. Well, I found myself a medical supply warehouse. Fixed it up myself. Well, pretty cool, huh?"

"We'll tell Daryl you're here and he'll come out to meet you." Glenn suggested.

"Hold on. Just hold up." Merle said. "Hey, the fact that we found each other is a miracle. Come on, now. Ya can trust me." Merle wanted to assure them.

"You trust us." Glenn mused. "You stay here."

Merle didn't answer, and just gave a small smile. Suddenly he attacked, pulling out another gun and shooting - only to hit the back glass of their car. Merle rushed to the side where Maggie ran, as Glenn got there, Merle was holding Maggie down - a gun pointed to her head.

"Hey, hey, hold up, buddy, hold up." Merle said.

Tess didn't know what to do - she held tightly her bow and silently stepped up to point it at Merle.

"Let go of her. Let go of her!" Glenn screamed.

"Merle. Don't do this now." Tess begged.

"Shut up." Merle replied. "Put it in the car, son."

Glenn slowly put his gun away in to the car.

"And you blondie - you listen to my orders or somethin' will happen to your boy." Merle threatened.

Tess was gasping and hesitated for a second before aiming her bow at Glenn now.

"There ya go. Now we're gonna go for a lil' drive." Merle said.

"We're not going back to our camp." Glenn said quickly.

"No, we're going somewhere else." Merle replied. "Get in the car, Glenn! Yer drivin'!" He demanded. "Move!"

"Don't." Glenn was worried about Maggie. "Okay." He finally decided to obey Merle.

"Get up!" Merle pushed Maggie up. "Tess, go to the back seat!"

They all got into the car and drove away - heading back to Woodbury. Maggie was also sitting on the backseat as she glanced over to Tess. Maggie had a look what asked _why are you doing this _from Tess.

"I'm sorry." Tess whispered, biting her lip.

* * *

**Oh wow, chapter ten here already! Just updated chapter nine yesterday. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and I'll be soon working on the next chapter. Merry Christmas to everyone! Reviews would be great presents for me, haha! :)**


	11. Chapter 11

"I was just about to go talk to her next." Merle said to Governor.

"I'll take care of it." Governor nodded.

"No." Tess hurried at them. "I'll go." She said determined.

Governor stared at her, questioning why she wanted to go instead.

"I was in the group." She blurted. "I could get some information out of her."

Governor thought for a second until he nodded. "Alright."

Tess walked over to the building where Maggie was held. She opened the creaking door and saw Maggie wince. Her hands were tied behind the chair and she looked afraid. Tess didn't say anything as she closed the door behind her and walked over to sit on another chair.

"Hi again." Tess said indifferent.

"Hey." Maggie answered nervous.

Tess sighed, placing her gun on the table. "I didn't come here to hurt you - either to ask you questions what they want to know." She paused. "They want to know where your camp is." She tapped her fingers on the table, thinking of something. "I'll help you and Glenn to get hell away from here and back to your group."

Maggie rose her head, surprised. "W-why do you want to help us?" She asked.

"You're good people. The Governor lies. He wants to slaughter every other group living here and steal everything from them. I have seen it a lot and I hate seeing it - I don't want the same happen to you and the others." Tess continued and stood up, taking out her knife.

Maggie seemed to panic a bit, but she calmed down when Tess cut the ropes off from her hands.

"Let's go." Tess whispered, handing over her knife. "Take this and let's go get Glenn."

Maggie carefully took the knife, breathing shakily. Tess opened the door, looking at both directions and holding her gun. Maggie followed her as they sneaked over to the room where Glenn was. Glenn looked terrible - Merle had beat him up for good. Maggie ran right away to his arms, crying. Glenn looked over and noticed Tess. She just nodded and gave a small smile.

"Why are you.." Glenn started when Tess dismissed him.

"We don't have time, we need to go now." She whispered and turned around when Governor came on the doorway, pointing his gun.

"Tess, I'm surprised." He said, laughing. "That is some loyalness right there."

Merle and two guys came to cover Governor.

"We're through with games. Now one of you is gonna give up your camp." Governor said firmly. "You, get away from her or I'll shoot." He said to Glenn, who slowly got his grip off from Maggie.

One of the guys grabbed Maggie, what made Glenn fume and almost attack.

Governor pointed the gun at Maggie's head and it made Glenn stop. Governor suddenly walked over to Glenn, pointing his gun at Glenn's head.

"The prison." Maggie blurted out.

"The one near Nunez?" Merle asked. "That place is overrun."

"We took it." Maggie replied.

"How many are you?" Governor questioned.

"Ten." Maggie said and swallowed. "We have ten now."

"Ten people cleared that whole prison of biters?" Governor looked at Glenn. "Huh?" He turned his head at Maggie and back at Glenn, starting to point the gun closer to Glenn's forehead, until lowering it.

Much to Glenn's annoyance, Governor hugged Maggie and told her everything was going to be alright until pushing her towards Glenn.

As Governor and his group left the room, Tess tried escaping the scene when Governor spoke out.

"You." He sternly said, what made her stop. "You try helping them again, I promise it won't end out good for you and them."

"Go to hell." She spat, still her back turned towards them as she left.

"What should we do with her? She doesn't seem to be on our side." Merle asked the Governor.

"I'll figure something out." He shortly answered.

* * *

"We need to leave!" Tess shouted, slamming her house's door open, stepping into her own room. Her sister Kelly walked to her quickly, seeing her packing her things into a bag.

"Leave?" Kelly wondered. "Out there? But -"

"Kelly, it isn't safe here. Governor is not what you think he is - he's lying about everything. He kills other groups." Tess disclosed.

"How long have you known?" Kelly asked, staring at her.

"Since I came here." She muttered.

"You didn't tell me?" Kelly huffed.

"No, I didn't." Tess paused. "But, because this place was the closest thing to safe. I changed my mind - Kelly, they have people from my old group as hostages. I just can't stand around and wait for them to get killed." She sighed. "I tried getting them free, but got caught. I don't think Governor trusts me anymore." She sat on her bed, crossing her arms. "I have a feeling he's gonna get me killed." Tess muttered.

Kelly sat beside her. "How could we survive out there? There's no place to go and think about Sam.."

"I know...I really did it this time, didn't I?" Tess looked at Kelly with worried look.

"I think what you tried was right, it's okay - don't worry about it." Kelly gave a light smile. "We're gonna get through this."

Tess returned the smile, but noticed people with guns running across the street.

"What's going on?" Tess rushed to the window, looking outside. "Wait here, I'm gonna go check out. Get Sam upstairs." Tess urged.

After Kelly nodded and left to get Sam, Tess opened the front door, her gun ready in her hand. One man ran across her, but she stopped him.

"Hey! What's happening here?"

"We heard there are intruders in Woodbury." He quickly said before continuing his way.

Tess frowned until heading back inside and upstairs. "Stay here, there's intruders in this town - probably armed. I'll be back soon."

"Tess, don't! Please!" Kelly yelled. "You can die out there!"

Tess didn't listen but closed the door and headed downstairs, grabbing her bow and going outside.

Everyone were panicking outside when a smoke bombs flew on the street. A gunfire started and Tess covered behind a wall.

An arm grabbed her shoulder and she aimed her bow right away.

"Whoa! It's just me." John whispered and rose his hands in the air.

Tess sighed, lowering her bow.

"Do you know what's going on?" He asked.

"Not really, came here to find out." She replied. "You have a gun?"

"Yeah, didn't much learn to use it though."

"We need to split up." Tess mused. "I'm gonna keep going this way, you should go check if the other way. Please?" She looked hopefully at John.

"Alright." He nodded.

"Be careful." She whispered.

"I'll try." John headed left, quickly ducking for cover near another building.

Another smoke bomb flew on the street and she heard yelling but it was unclear on the endless gunfire. She didn't have time to react when a figure rushed at the cover where she was, he noticed her immediately and pushed her down on the ground, a gun on his hand. Tess couldn't see this man's face because of the thick smoke, she tried fighting back but he was strong.

"Don't! Please. I'm not one of them." She begged from this man.

"Just shut the hell up will ya?"

She froze - his voice. It couldn't be. "D-Daryl?" Tess asked carefully.

He eased his grip from her and seemed to stare at her for a second.

"Tess?" He finally said. "What the hell are ya doin' here?"

"Just let me get up."

Daryl rose, pulling her up.

He didn't seem to expect it as she hugged him tightly. "You're alive." She whispered.

He pulled her away from him. "Look, right now I don't have time for a chit-chat, I need to cover my friends." He said firmly.

"So, you're not happy to even see me? What's with that cold shoulder?" She frowned.

"We haven't seen in eight months. Ya just left us and ran off."

"It wasn't my choice." Tess spat.

Daryl glared at her and shook his head. "I need to go now." He ran to cover fire his friends.

"Daryl, come on!" Tess stood on her place and exhaled. He didn't trust her even one bit anymore. It was understandable, it had been so long. Still - she was relieved to know he was alive. She hurried to the back door of her house, locking the door behind her and heading to check on her sister and son. Tess opened the door to find them sitting on the floor, leaning on the sofa behind them. Sam rose up right away, running to hug his mother. She smiled, grabbing him to her arms and sitting next to Kelly.

"Glad to get you back." Kelly said.

"I always get back." Tess smiled.

"Is it over?"

"I'm not sure."

The gunfire quieted after few minutes, and Tess felt uneasy.

"Maybe I should go -"

"No, you just got back for christ sake." Kelly blurted.

"Kelly, take care of Sam. I won't be gone for long. " Tess gently put Sam next to Kelly and walked away again.

She opened the door carefully and looked in every direction. She heard Governor speaking near the arena and hurried there.

He had kept a speech. "And worse..." He continued. "Because two of those terrorists...is two of our own." Governor finished and pointed. "Merle..the man I counted on, the man I trusted."

Governor looked through the stadium and noticed her. "Tess..."

Couple guys grabbed her suddenly and brought her closer.

"I trained her to shoot and she was soon one of my best shooters. But I caught her helping the terrorists." Governor paused. "They led 'em here. And they let 'em in."

They took Tess and Merle's guns away and surrounded them, pointing guns at them.

"It was you." Governor looked at them. "You lied, betrayed us all."

Two guys came with a man whose head was covered with a bag in to the arena. They pushed Merle near Governor as Tess was pushed on the ground on her knees.

"This is one of the terrorists." Governor pointed at the man with a bag on his head. Governor grabbed him and took the bag off.

"Merle's own brother."

Tess was shocked. Merle was surprised to see his own brother too. Tess noticed Andrea on the stadium looking terrified.

"What should we do with them, huh?" Governor asked.

"Kill them!" Viewers shouted.

"What?" Governor asked again. "What do you want?"

"Kill them!"

Tess gasped, panicking. "No!" She screamed, but her voice drowned to the audience who were yelling to kill them. Then she tried getting up and running but got grabbed. "Let me go!" She yelled and struggled.

"I asked you where your loyalties lie." Governor looked at Merle. "You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother. Winner goes free." He paused. "Fight to the death."

Andrea was trying to convince Governor to not do it, but he didn't even listen to her.

"Y'all know me!" Merle shouted. "I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to prove.." He hit Daryl on the stomach and Daryl fell down on the ground.

"Merle! Please, don't do it!" Tess cried.

"...that my loyalty is to this town!" Merle finished, kicking Daryl.

Two walkers were brought on the arena. Daryl managed to hit Merle on the nose and Daryl rose up fast, grabbing Merle, but Merle got him pinned down instead and started choking each other - when suddenly Merle pulled Daryl up and they got backs against each other and fought the walkers.

Couple gunshots killed the walkers and people started panicking. A smoke bomb was thrown in the arena and people ran off.

"Daryl!" Tess shouted but didn't hear an answer. She got up and started running away from the smoke, until something hit her to the head and she fell on the ground. Tess tried keeping her eyes open. Getting up seemed impossible. She gasped and felt herself blackout.


	12. Chapter 12

Tess heard yelling and car horns - but couldn't see anything. Her head hurt like hell after somebody had hit her. Maybe it was somebody escaping the town. She was just glad it wasn't Governor or anyone who could have killed her. She shot her eyes open after few gunshots rang on her ears. Tess was laying on the grass, outside the town. She saw the guards killing couple walkers. They hadn't seen her yet, which was a huge relief. Guards were shouting to the people who were complaining. She noticed her chance and crawled deeper in to a small forest. When Tess thought it was safe enough she sat on a fallen tree and held her head. She needed to find Daryl and his group. Her family was still in Woodbury and she couldn't waste anymore time, she had to be quick getting them out without nobody noticing. Tess tapped her holster and felt her gun in there - gladly no one had stolen it.

She took it out and reloaded it, when she heard screaming. Tess saw a hole in the fence and peeked through it. There were walkers in the town - eating a man. Everyone had their attention at them, so Tess squeezed through the hole and ran behind the buildings. She got to her own backdoor and opened it. She rushed to the kitchen to find nobody from there, neither from living room.

"Kelly!" Tess shouted, heading upstairs.

She opened the door and found Sam playing peacefully with his toys and Kelly listening to a radio. She rushed first to hug her sister and then ruffled Sam's hair. Before Kelly managed to open her mouth and say something, Tess cut her off.

"We need to leave - now." She firmly blurted.

"Where are we gonna go?" Kelly asked worried.

"I'll take care of it, don't worry." Tess got up, opening a closet and taking bags. "I'll pack clothes, go pack food."

Kelly nodded and turned off the radio, walking down the stairs and headed to kitchen.

Tess was lost in her thoughts, pretty much throwing the clothes into the bag. She felt something tug her jacket sleeve, what made her look down - only to notice Sam there.

"Why are we leaving?" He asked.

Tess bit her lip, crouching down to Sam's level. "Dear, we have to. It's not safe here. But I promise to take you and Kelly somewhere safe."

Sam nodded, a sad look on his face. It made Tess frown and pull him to her arms.

"I won't ever let anything happen to you." She whispered. "Now, I have to finish packing, just go play for a while with your toys, okay?"

"Okay." He answered, rushing to go play with a toy car.

* * *

After Tess had finished packing, she grabbed the bags and took them downstairs. Kelly was also ready.

"Sam! Come on now!" Tess shouted.

Sam came carefully downstairs and Tess made him wear a small jacket.

"Okay, I think we're ready to go." Tess said.

They made their way through the backdoor and Tess looked if anyone was around. They were still arguing about the walkers. She rushed to the hole and made Kelly go first, then Sam. She felt pain as a bullet hit her right leg barely. Tess looked behind - she had been noticed. Many of the men took their guns out. Tess widened her eyes, going through the hole fast as she could. She took Sam on her arms and ran with Kelly in to the forest. Couple walkers appeared on their way and it made them stop, Tess handed over Sam to Kelly and took out her knife. She swung it and hit the walker in to the head. She took out more of them and then grabbed Sam back to her arms - continuing their way forward. A yell made Tess turn around to see Kelly fall on to the ground. A walker was attacking her, Tess took out her gun and covered Sam who was now hiding behind her back. She aimed the gun and got a headshot. She rushed right away at Kelly, and saw her stomach bleeding badly.

"K-Kelly, don't worry - I'll get you fixed." Tess looked through the bag for anything what could help.

"No! Don't!" Kelly insisted. "We both know what's gonna happen to me." She swallowed. "Do it."

"No, Kelly - maybe I can.."

"Tess. Now. We don't have much time." Kelly demanded.

Tess cried, looking at Sam who was terrified. "Don't look Sam and cover your ears."

Sam did as she told him and covered his ears.

Tess pointed her gun at her sister and felt her hand shake.

"Get Sam safe - just be safe, please." Kelly muttered.

"I promise I'll get us both somewhere safe." Tess sobbed. "I love you." She finished, pulling the trigger.

Tess put her gun back to its holster and got up. She was dirty and bloody now. She touched Sam's shoulder to make him react since he was still covering his eyes and looking away. "Let's go." She softly said to him. "Stay close."

Sam nodded and walked beside her. After running, the pain in her leg seemed to be worse and it was bleeding. She heard voices further away and narrowed her eyes to see figures standing on the route. One of them was walking away.

"Daryl!" A voice yelled, what sounded like Glenn.

Tess took a hold from Sam's hand and moved faster. She was close, but stopped when a figure stood up from the ground - it was Merle.

"Hey, honey - what are ya doin' here?" Merle laughed. "Ey! Look who's here!" He shouted to the others.

Tess recognized Rick, who was walking at them. He tilted his head, looking at her. "Tess? What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Hey, don't ya know? She was in Woodbury too - right beside the Governor like me." Merle said.

Daryl, Maggie and Glenn came too, looking surprised.

"I hated that place." Tess spoke out. "He was killing innocent people." She spat, looking at Merle.

Merle seemed to ignore what she said and looked at Sam hiding behind her. "Aww, is that yer boy? I think it is. Hm - where's yer sister?"

"She's..." Tess paused. "..gone."

"So, what are you doing here?" Glenn asked.

"I escaped. I couldn't take it no more in that place - I wanted to find your group again."

"Look, it's been long since you left us. How do we know could we trust you if you were with the Governor?" Rick asked.

"I wasn't there because of my own will. I was forced to be in there. If I would had stayed with your group, my family would have been killed. Please, I'm not like them. I just want to get my son safe." She begged. Tess groaned, holding her leg.

Rick raised an eyebrow and she noticed it.

"It's just a gunshot." Tess replied.

"We can get that fixed. But I'm not sure about keeping you with us."

"Do what ya have to do." Daryl spoke. "Come on, bro." He said, leaving with Merle.

"Wait, where is he going?" Tess looked at Rick.

"He's leaving with Merle. We didn't want Merle to come with us. But I guess blood's blood for Daryl." Rick replied.

They started packing weapons back to the car.

"Come on. We'll get that fixed up." Rick said, looking at Tess.

She nodded, walking to go sit on the car. Sam followed him and she had him on her lap. She felt dizzy and had a tight grip from the seat. Tess struggled to keep awake, but blacked out.

"Mom?" Sam shook her shoulder, but didn't get a response.

"She just blacked out, don't worry." Maggie said, giving a light smile to him.

Rick started driving back to their camp.

"I didn't know she had a son." Maggie looked over to Sam, who had fallen asleep.

"Yeah, well - there were lots of things she didn't tell us." Rick responded.

"You know - it's kind of understandable she left back to her family. And Tess isn't an enemy for me. She helped me and Maggie - she tried busting us out." Glenn uttered.

Rick didn't say anything, but continued to keep his focus on the road. They arrived back to the prison, Carol and Carl opened the entrance for them.

Rick got off from the car. "Drive 'em up. I'll meet you there." He said.

"Okay." Maggie answered.

"Thank god." Rick went to hug Carl.

Carol looked on the back seats and saw two figures there - but she was looking for Daryl.

"Where's Hershel?" Rick asked.

"He's in the cell block." Carl replied.

"Where's Daryl?" Carol looked at Rick.

Rick walked to her. "It's all right. He's alive. We ran into his brother. They went off."

"He left?" Carol asked. "Daryl left?" She repeated. "He's gone? Is he coming back?" Carol was about to walk away.

"Hey." Rick walked after her.

"Gone? Who are those people?" Carol asked.

"That's Tess and her son." Rick responded.

Carol looked surprised. "Tess? How... - she has a son?"

Rick nodded.

"And Oscar?" Carl asked.

"No." Rick shortly said.

* * *

Tess opened her eyes slowly, looking to the right she saw Sam sitting next to her. Old man with a white beard was cleaning her gunshot wound.

"Hershel?" She finally remembered.

"Yes. Nice to see you again, Tess." He said. "You can consider yourself lucky, the bullet only hit your leg. I stopped the bleeding and it should be fine in couple days. Just rest for a while."

"Thank you."

Hershel nodded and left. She rose to sit and saw Carl locking a cell door after Hershel went in. Tess looked at her son and he seemed to be afraid of these people who were strangers to him.

"It's alright, dear. These are good people." She whispered to him.

Sam nodded. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"I am now, don't worry. How are you feeling?"

"Fine." He smiled.

"Good." She smiled back at him and then lifted her head when she heard baby's crying.

Tess stood up, walking over to the cell's door. "You have a baby?"

Maggie came from one of the cells. "Yeah. Her name is Judith."

"Whose is it?" Tess asked.

"Lori's."

"Is she there?"

Maggie grew silent as Tess asked the question. "Oh, sorry." She apologized.

"It's alright, you didn't know." Maggie paused. "She died when giving birth to her. My dad's leg was cut off when he got bit and Rick is visiting crazytown - he still isn't over Lori." She muttered.

"If you need help with Judith, I can help as I have experience. You can trust me." Tess said.  
"We're gonna wait until Rick gets back and he'll decide it."

"Okay, I'll just -" Tess stopped when she heard a gunshot outside. "What was that?"

Maggie didn't respond, but ran to probably get guns.

Tess noticed her holster was empty. "Maggie, did you take my weapons away?"

"It was for safety reasons. I can return it for now, if you promise to help us whatever is out there." Maggie rushed and opened the cell door.

She was about to hand out a weapon to Tess, but stopped first. "Can I trust you?" She asked and looked directly into her eyes.

"My son is in here, I wouldn't never try anything stupid. You can trust me." Tess assured.

Maggie nodded quickly and gave a gun to her - Tess followed her outside and heard a gunfire.

"Beth!" Maggie yelled and handed a weapon to Beth.

They ran over to the wall where Carl was. Carol was having cover under a man's dead body. Tess started aiming for the guy in the watch tower.

"Carol! Go! Now!" Tess yelled while shooting.

Carol rose fast, running behind the wall successfully. Tess saw it was Governor and his group attacking. The gunfire stopped for a moment when a car drove through the prison fences to the yard. They all waited in silence, when the car's back door opened and group of walkers were released.

Possibly driver of the car ran out, shooting at Rick's group. Gunfire started once again. Maggie got the shooter on the watch tower killed. Governor retreated and left. Carol, Maggie, Carl, Beth and Tess following them ran on the yard and started killing the walkers. Glenn had come back with his car and drove to get Hershel. They closed the gate as couple walkers were still roaming around.

When Rick returned, Tess smiled when she saw Daryl with him. Daryl had returned - but Merle with him too.


End file.
